Digimon: The Hound
by Auul
Summary: As young Akio bought a second hand digivice and loaded the Dobermon X that was stored in it, he had no idea of what a great trouble he had got involved in.OC. Please read and review
1. I: strike at the night

**Update weekly**

**Disclaimer: I don't own digimon, but the human characters and the plot are mine**

**! This prologue won't connect to the main line till ch3, so if this prologue doesn't appeal to you, I still hope you to read ch1. thx!**

* * *

In a dark empty warehouse, Naoki was leaning against the wall, detached his digivice from his arm, and handed it to the much younger, nine years old girl.

'Jun, I want you to keep this.' Naoki said to the blond girl.

'No!' Jun protested, 'You are not leaving me too!'

Naoki said nothing to the girl, instead, he turned his sight to the digimon next to the girl. 'Monochromon, please take care of Jun.'

The Monochromon(X-antibody) nodded. With this, Naoki was relieved to go.

'No!' Jun cried, ran to stop Naoki, but was stopped by Monochromon.

* * *

In the desert, it's not easy to find the right direction. So it took Naoki a while to reach his distination after he left the warehouse.

The wind blown a few pinch of sand past the front of Naoki 's face, blurred his he could see again, a black God-man digimon stood in front of Naoki.

Naoki looked up, their eyes met. Then he said, ' It's been a while, brother.'

'Yes, it's been a long while.' the black digimon, known as Plutomon, answered.

'It's kinda funny that you were the one who saved me countless times and now you are the one to take it away.' Naoki said

Plutomon said nothing, just staring at his former partner

'Come on, you know what have to be done.' said Naoki.

Plutomon raised his arm, released a darkness blast.

* * *

Far away, after witnessed Plutomon's action, the shadowed one smiled. While Plutomon walked towards it slowly.

'Have you got it?' it asked

'Sorry, it isn't with him.' Plutomon answered

'So there left only one to hunt.' said the shadowed one.

* * *

Akio was in the school dorm, lying on his bed, eyes opened. He couldn't wait for the day after tomorrow, after then, things would be all right. After all, a boarding school really isn't the place he belongs, he didn't come to this city to study, he came to be a tamer, to fight in the arena. And he got his parents' permission to access here, only with one condition, to keep studying. But what he didn't anticipated is that he couldn't even get out of the school for two whole years, and the dream of being a tamer is, of course, delayed, not until the 'second' summer holiday he would have soon.

_I thought this city would be __awesome__, _instead of sleeping, Akio was remembering his reason of traveling to here._ The city of Bifrost, the island city built in the __void__ between the Digital World and the Human World as the only __bridge__ connecting them. Sounds pretty cool. And due to its __accessibility__, it__'__s most tamers__'__ home, my home, too. _Then he smiled, _a place that __I__ have been living in for two years, but __I__don't__ even know a bit of it except for this crappy school. _He then closed his eyes, trying to skip the night. _Just after __tomorrow__, everything will be fine._

* * *

Day1

And so it came to the day he did always been anticipating, last day of school, time to leave this horrible place, at least for two months.

_After the next bell,_ thought Akio, staring at the clock and making a countdown in his mind.

'Akio Nogami!' the teacher shouted

'Yes?' Akio replied nervously, he had a bad feeling and he could guess what is coming next.

'As usual, your homework?' the teacher asked angrily

'Homework? I can't even go home.' Akio whispered

'What did you say?'

'Nothing,' Akio replied nervously, 'actually, does the homework matters now? The exam was passed and I have got good grades.'

'You're not the best one in class, and even if you were, you still need to do your work. Now would you want to stay at the school for the whole holiday to do it slowly, or finish it all in a few hours?'

'Fine.' Knowing that there is no way to escape, Akio could do nothing but obey.

* * *

'Can you imaging that? Five and a half hour for some stupid mathics,' Akio talked to the air while he was packing his stuff, it was already 10:00 pm, and he got a little headache, 'Why do the teachers always think that practice can make perfect!' After he done packing his things, the red haired boy walked out of the street.

'Time to head to uncle Nanamori's place.' It's nice that Akio has got relatives in this city to provide him shelter, otherwise, he would have no place to live. Akio is not a good map-reader, plus the headache made things a lot worse. Soon the red haired boy got lost in a dark alley.

_Now what should __I__ do?_ He turned back, shocked to see a Darkdramon face to face. Its four glowing red eyes didn't seem friendly. _What__'__s a Darkdramon doing here?_ Akio thought as he slowly stepping back. The answer came to his head once the Darkdramon opened its mouth, dashed toward Akio.

Akio wasn't fast enough, Darkdramon crashed into him and he hit a wall. Now Darkdramon's mouth is only a few centimeters away from Akio's head, and it's chopping, with some saliva leaking out. All Akio could do is to push the Darkdramon as hard as he can, to at least push it a centimeter back so he would get bitten. But he couldn't hold it for long.

Suddenly the Darkdramon was stroke down by something. And Akio didn't miss the chance to escape, he ran as fast as can toward the opposite direction of the Darkdramon, until he crashed into someone.

'That's how you treat the one that saved you, huh?' said a female voice. Through the dim light Akio could see that it is a girl, younger than him, and she was wearing a pair of goggles.

'What is with that goggles?' Akio asked

'Thermal vision goggles, works with infra-red radiation or something that's similar.' The girl answered, 'You can't fight in the dark without a clear vision, can you?'

'Be prepared, Katsumi, it's not down yet.' Another voice said

'Alright, it will be dead soon.' Said the girl, she pulled out a card and inserted it into the digivice that she wear on her left fore arm.

'Bishop Laser.' Said a mechanical voice.

Then there was a yelling, probably from Darkdarmon. And then there was a black digimon landed beside Katsumi.

'Good job, Chessmon.' Said Katsumi

'What's going on?' asked Akio, 'I thought a tamer can't fight outside the arena.'

'Yeah, we're braking the law to save you, at least we deserve a "thank you",' said the black haired girl.

'Oh! I forgot that, sorry. Thank you.' Said Akio

'That's better.' The girl muttered.

Then, there was light spotted on three of them. They were surrounded by three police and three WarGreymon.

Akio and his fellows said nothing, put their hands on the air and fallow the police to the police station.

* * *

'We really did nothing,' Katsumi claimed, 'we're just…dating, you know, we're just kids, so we need to hide from our parents, they'll never accept us.' For Katsumi, lying is just s piece of cake.

'Then what's that BishopChessmon doing there?'

'She's my best friend, she help us to get to that place.' Katsumi lied.

After some more questioning, they were released since there were no evidence to prove that Katsumi had carried out an illegal battle, and Akio didn't even have a digimon partner. The cop dropped them at a 24-hour restaurant and contacted their parents, or in Akio's case, guardian, to pick them up. So before they came, the three had time for a little chat.

'The name's Akio Nogami, just call me Akio.' The red haired boy introduced himself.

'Katsumi Kato.' Said the girl.

'I am BishopChessmon, you can just call me Chessmon.' Said BishopChessmon (black)

'So, can you explain what just happened back then?' Akio asked

Katsumi looked around, once she assured there were no people around, she started. 'This city appeared to safe, but it is not. There are digimons that cause threat to the city, at night, at the darkest alleys, the corner of streets, places that the police, who we considered to be our sole protector, neglected. There are where we fight back, to break the law to defense ourselves, because tamers aren't allowed to fight out side the arena, even it's self defense.'

'Sounds pretty cool, but you are actually just a rebellion girl who refuse to go home, and just so happened to save me, did I get any thing wrong?' said Akio

'You almost got them all correct.' Said Katsumi, 'But that "no self defense" thing is really…'

'Yeah, I know.' Said Akio, 'But you can't really blame the government, after that "Boarmon Incident"

'I know,' said Katsumi, with a bit anger in her voice, 'I just want to protest in my own way.'

'Anyway,' Akio switched the channel, 'I want to be a tamer, can you help me on this?'

'Sure, you will be my student, then.' Said Katsumi

'Student? So what do I call you? Sensei?' Akio asked.

'That's weird, we're Japanese but we're speaking English, so use proper noun.'

'What about miss or missy?'

'Better.' Katsumi and Akio shacked hands. 'Deal.'

* * *

**Just to be clear, the shadowed one have nothing to do with Bionicle.**

**If you like the story, please fav and follow, thx again**

**Extra information that you may want to skip**

**Akio Nogami: 16years old. Male. Has remarkable red hair and demonic red eyes. He usually wear a black short shelves tee shirt with flames deco on it, a red long shelves undershirt, and long black sweatpants. Also wears a pair of roller skates because he's too lazy to walk, he chose to draft.**

**Katsumi Kato: 13years old girl. Has black hair with a short hair cut. She knows a lots of things related to tamers, which helps Akio a lot in the near future. She wears a while sweatshirt, blue shorts and a pair of thermal vision goggles. Her partner is Chessmon.**

**Chessmon: Katsumi's partner, she is a black BishopChessmon. Had a quiet and calm nature. The moves that she used the most is 'Bishop Laser.' She is female because she is going to become a Queenchessmon and it would just be wired to have a male one.**

**'Boarmon incident': I'll explain it later. I'm tired~**

**So this is my first attempt to do every setting on my own, it's kinda funny and at the same time is kinda, well, difficult. Any way, guess no one would want to read this half pages long extra so I am going to stop here. Your view is my biggest support, thx! **

**Coming soon next week.**


	2. ll: load saved data?

**Last time, I actually forgot to write down the detils of the characters, Akio has short messy hair and short legs, while Katsumi is a head shorter than Akio, etc.**

**Anyway, just let the story begins.**

* * *

Day 2

The next day, Akio woke up early at 7:00am. To his surprise,he got a call right after he got off bed.

'Hallo, this is Akio.' Akio said in a sleepy voice.

'Hay, it's Katsumi.'

_Guess you didn't forget the deal._ Thought Akio, 'Why so early?'

'Last night you said you know no direction, so I think it's better to show you around this district. Where do you live? I am going to pick you up.' said Katsumi

'East, brezze street, bee building, 5th floor, room E.' Akio replied, still in a sleepy voice.

'Coming soon, get yourself ready.' Katsumi then cut off the call.

_So I can't go back to bed, huh?_ Thought Akio. He went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, washed his face, then changed his clothes. Katsumi then arrived.

'Real quick.' said Akio

'You have a lot to learn, so let's get going.' said Katsumi

'Yes, missy.' said Akio

'Seriously? You're still on this missy thing? I thought you were just joking when you said you are to call me like this.' Asked Katsumi

'It's just fun to say it.' said Akio, he then saw Katsumi's expression. 'Alright, l'll just call you Katsumi then.'

Katsumi seemed to look a bit happier.

'Uncle, I am going out with my friend.' Akio told his uncle.

'Ok' said Akio's uncle.

So Akio went with Chessmon and Katsumi, after the three had breakfast, they traveled ,around the east district for the whole morning. From the brezze street down to the evoke street then to the funnel street. Katsumi introduced all kinds of shops to Akio, like Etemon's cards Store, Mamemon's digivice repair service, and a lot more.

By the afternoon, the three stopped by a restaurant for lunch.

'Some extra information if you want to know.' said Katsumi

'Why not.' said Akio

'The Terminal is in the west district, the south is basically the great arena and not much residential area, so it's population is the smallest.' said Katsumi 'Those are the landmarks.'

'Let's get back on track, shall we? Akio, you want to be a tamer, had you registered yet?' asked Katsumi

'I have done nothing.' answered Akio

'And your budget?'

'Here.' Akio showed Katsumi

'The registration is gonna take some fee, and with your amount of money, you probably can't afford any cards yet.' said Katsumi, she then took a look at the clock, 1:12pm.

'Hurry up, the registration is gonna take some time, too. Like two to three hours.' said Katsumi

'That long!?' exclaimed Akio

'Yeah, so we're going now.'

Like Katsumi had said, the process took three hours, but most of the time, Akio was just sitting and waiting, excluded that amount of time, the registration only took at most half an hour.

'Never mind, at least you are now one step closer to becoming a tamer.' said Katsumi

'But that registration was just ridiculously long!' said Akio, 'At least this card is quite nice.' he said while, playing with his newly obtained tamer card.

'Be careful with that! You need it or people can't sell you any digimon-related equipment.' said Katsumi

'Yes.' Akio muttered as he put the card back to his pocket.'Next stop?'

'Just follow me.' said Katsumi

They walked quite a long way until they reached a shop that appeared to be a digivice store.

'Hey, Ichirou.' Katsumi said to the young shopkeeper, who is a boy, obviously younger than Akio, around Katsumi's age. He looked delighted to see Katsumi, but narrowed his eyebrows once he saw Akio.

_I know I don't look good, but this reaction?_ Thought Akio, who thought Ichirou didn't want to look at him because he is bad looking.

Katsumi and Ichirou then had a little chat. From how they talk to and look at each other, Akio could deduce that they had known each other for a long time, and may be more than just friends. _Interesting._ Thought Akio.

Ichirou then turned to Akio, 'The name is Ichirou.' he introduced himself.

'Yeah, kinda heard it from your conversation.' said Akio

'I am Akio,but I guess she had already mentioned me. By the way, you own this shop?'

'No, it's my dad's, I am just helping out here.' answered Ichirou

'Oh, sure, how could a kid own such a shop, I am not in a RPG world.' Akio whispered.

'As I said, we're here to help Akio get his first digivice, any advice?' said Katsumi, while Akio was looking at various digivice displayed in the shelfs.

'I'll have to check his tamer card first.' said Ichirou

'Here.' Akio handed his card to Ichirou without turning to him. 'Hey, what's that cool looking thing?' Asked Akio, he pointed to a Navy blue digivice. Unlike Katsumi's , this digivice doesn't come with a big touch screen, instead, it has a set of three buttons beside a smaller screen.

'That shelf is for second hand stuffs.' said Katsumi

'Ignore her, I want to have a look.' said Akio

Ichirou opened the shelf, grabbed the navy blue and handed it to Akio. 'There you go.'

'That is like the model of five or six years ago, right?' asked Katsumi

'Six years ago, it's an Aurail G3, not like Katsumi's Phanco V5, which most people prefer to use nowadays. ' said Ichirou, 'dad got this from another seller yesterday, I don't know if it is still functional.'

'Then let's try it.' said Akio

'Sure.' Ichirou switched the damaged battery with a new one, and the screen lighted up. 'So it's still functional.'

'I want this one.' said Akio, 'Any thing I need to know about it?'

'Basically, the functions are the same as nowadays', just not compatible with the newer cards, and you don't insert the cards into a card slot, you slide them.' said Ichirou, 'and one more thing.' he pointed at the screen, which was showing a question. 'Load previous data?'

'Most people chose no.' said Katsumi

'I need some time to consider it.' said Akio

As the second hand digivice costed less than Katsumi expected, she helped Akio to do some shopping of the cards. After they were done, it was almost 9:30pm.

'Now you really have to choose, Akio.' Katsumi told Akio, 'If you chose no, then we'll go to adopt a digi egg, if, yes, then we don't need to.'

'Just give me some more time, like five or ten minutes.' Akio paused, 'wait, did you feel something strange? It's so...quiet.'

'This street is always quite.' said Katsumi

'Ahhhh!' they heard a girl screaming.

'This is not good.' said Katsumi. Akio followed the direction of the sound, drifted to an alley with his roller skates. But there was nothing, only a wall that marked the dead end.

Katsumi and Chessmon arrived seconds later. Katsumi put on her thermal vision goggles, looked around, try to find something, but there were no digimon or human.

'Everyone listen!' said Akio, 'Katsumi, did you looked down the ground? I think it's coming from below.'

'Duck!' Akio shouted, but he was the only one managed to escape. Green tentacles wrapped around Katsumi's and Chessmon's limbs, disabled both of them.

Just by one glance, Akio recognized the digimon that drilled out from the ground, it's Blossomon.

_But what about that screaming __girl__? _Thought Akio. Blossomon seemed to read the question from Akio's face. 'You're finding the owner of this voice?' she said, then made a sound, exactly the girl's screaming voice. 'Always that easy to fool some kids.' Said Blossomon.

_It__'__s a planed attack?_ Thought Akio, _for what?_ 'What do you want?' he asked.

'Quite a smart kid.' Said Blossomon, 'Give me your digivice, with all the old data inside it. Or this girl and that BishopChessmon dies.'

'Who sent you here?' asked Akio, Blossomon hesitated for a moment. _So there is someone behind it, well done, Blossomon, you__'__ve just shown me the answer._

'What happens if you failed, say, I deleted the data or loaded it? Or I refuse to give you?' said Akio.

'If I can't take it, neither can you!' shouted Blossomon.

_Easily get taunted. _Thought Akio.

'If you're smart enough, you would know what's the option.' Said Blossomon

'Sure I know,' said Akio as he placed his fingers on the buttons.

'One click on the button, determined three beings' life.' Said Blossomon, 'have I gave you too many option?'

'Have you gave yourself the same?' said Akio, 'You can always chose to look back, you know.'

Confessed by Akio's word, Blossomon turned around, only to see a flash passed by. The flash cut off Blossomon's tentacles, freed Katsumi and Chessmon.

'What!?' Blossomon exclaimed

The flash stopped in front of Akio. It's a hound like digimon. Black in color, it wears a sliver collar with long, sharp spikes on it. It has two sickles on the back, and four smaller as his dewclaws.

'A Dobermon?' said Katsumi, 'it looks a bit different.'

'He's a Dobermon, with X-antibody.' Said Akio, showing Katsumi the screen of his Aurial G3's screen with the digimon's information on it.

'Why?' said the Blossomon in a painful voice, 'How did you…?'

'Seriously, why would I chase to this alley alone? I loaded it out when I drifted here.' Said Akio, 'but his attack is, well, kind of a miracle, like he knows what I want him to do. May be because he's my partner, we shared some short of a mental connection, who knows.'

'You're all gonna die!' shouted the furious Blossomon

'Reconsider it.' said Dobermon, 'You may want to leave in peace, I mean, leave in one whole piece.'

'Nooo!' shouted Blossomon while jetting all of her tentacles towards Dobermon. Dobermon leaped forward, within the time to blink, he cut all the tentacles off. Blssomon yelled in pain.

'You asked for it.' said Dobermon, he dashed toward Blossomon, then ripped her apart with his claws, and tear her apart with his fangs. Blossomon kept screaming. The parts that were ripped off on the ground soon broken down into shiny tiny particles and vanished. Not longer, no one could hear Blossomon's screaming.

Akio, Katsumi and Chessmon sat on the ground, shocked and speechless, until Katsumi spoke again. 'We gotta run now, Blossomon's screaming will definitely draw attention.'

As the three began to move, Dobermon stay still. 'Run to where? Where am I?'

'I know you've got lots of question, but just follow us now, please.' Said Akio. Dobermon thought for a second, then followed the group.

* * *

**More to know**

**All the names of moves and cards are called out by the digivice's cool mechanical voice(Something like Kamen Rider Dragon Knight's)**

**Phanco V5: The latest version of digivice, wear on arm, one big touch screen like the phone nowadays, and has a card slot.**

**Aurail G3: Akio's digivice, a model from six years ago. Like a pendulumX that you wear it on hand, with a track to let the cards slide through.**

**The official digivolution line of Dobermon: Dobermon-Cerberumon-Plutomon**

**So, yeah, I give names for the digivice, do you guys like it?**

**And Ichirou isn't a major character so I won't do his bio.**

**Last but not least, if you like the story, remember to fav it, follow, review and share to your friends, see you next week.**


	3. III:a hungry mouth to feed

The navy-blue digivice had been deactivated for years, its awakening at Ichiru's shop has also awaked two long silent parties.

'It appears again, after all these years.' A black digimon mumbled. 'Blossomon!' he summoned.

'Yes, master.'

'Follow the signal, I want my thing back, if you failed to get it, destroy it.'

'Yes.'

x. X. X

'Jun, you sure you want to retrieve it?' Triceramon asked

'Yes, it's part of my duty.' The blonde answered.

'It has been two whole years since you stopped battling…' said Triceramon

'Don't worry, I am still capable with it.' said Jun.

'Then you will need this.' Triceramon handed the girl her digivice and a new set of cards.

'You upgraded it.' the girl said as it checked her new Phanco V5, 'thanks.'

'Now off we go, that city is quite far away from here.'

X. X. X

Akio and Katsumi and Chessmon and Dobermon ran into the crowded main street. After ensured that they're safe, they found a bench in the park and sat down.

'Serious problems here.' Said Dobermon.

'Yes?' Akio replied

'What's going on? Why did I suddenly appear in that alley? What had you done to me?' asked Dobermon rapidly.

'I switched this Aurail G3 on, then loaded you out of it, that's all.' Said Akio

'And before it?' asked Dobermon, 'what happened before I was in the digivice?'

'I don't know, I though you should know it… wait, you can't remember?' said Akio

'Yeah, I can't remember, took you long enough to figure it out.' Said Dobermon

'Have you seen anything like this before?' Akio whispered to Katsumi.

'No.' the girl replied.

'Listen, Dobermon.' Said Akio, 'I don't know what happened to you before, and I don't know if I can find it out. But since you came out of my digivice, you're my partner now.'

'I guess so, I kinda read you mind back then when I fought that freaking plant.' Said Dobermon.

'You two should be able to make a good team.' Said Chessmon

'One more problem.' Said Akio, 'Being my partner, you are suppose to live with me, but you size like a standard tiger, I don't think my home have enough spaces.'

'That's why you need your digivice.' Said Katsumi, 'Open the menu, then follow my instruction.'

Akio bring up his Aurail G3, saw something unexpected. The screen showed 'Downloading…99%', then 'Download completed.'

After that, a small 8-bit image of an Agumon was shown, it positioned like it was standing on the lower edge of the screen.

'What the heck is it?' Akio exclaimed.

'I don't know.' Said Katsumi, 'Maybe it's some kind of a virus.'

'What's it? Let me see it!' said Dobermon while trying to reach his sight on the screen.

'I don't think you'll know.' Said Akio.

'Just let me have a look!.' Said Dobermon angrily.

'OK.' Akio sighed, adjusted the angle of the digivice so that Dobermon could see the screen. Dobermon stared at it for a short time.

'Any idea?' asked Katsumi

'No.' answered Dobermon.

'Can you all be quiet for a wooden moment?' voice came from the Aurail G3.

'Wow!' Akio and Dobermon shouted, surprised.

'Is that Agumon talking?' Katsumi suggested.

'I think so, speak from the inside of the digivice.' Said Akio

'Just shut up. will you?' the same voice came from the digivice again. 'I can't talk to you if you're not listening.'

'Yes?' said Akio.

The image of the Agumon turned around, like it's observing its surroundings. 'First of all, who are you guys, where is Naoki?'

'Who's Naoki?' asked Katsumi. The Agumon image saw the puzzled looking of the human girl, and knew that they had no idea of the being called Naoki.

'Forget about it.' It said, 'Just state your identities.'

'I am Akio Nogami.' Said Akio

'Katsumi Kato.' Katsumi introduced herself, then set her sight on Chessmon, 'and this is BishopChessmon, you can simply call her Chessmon.'

'No need to introduce digimons, I know them all too well.' Said the Agumon image.

'Now who are you?' asked Akio, 'We've all introduced ourself, now's your turn.'

'All you need to know is that you can call me dotAgumon.' Said dotAgumon.

'You can actually hear? And see?' asked Dobermon out of the blue.

'Yes, I can.' Said dotAgumon

'How?' asked Chessmon.

'It's like online chatting.' Said dotAgumon, 'but I am actually inside the screen, no way out, so don't try to get rid of me, you can't.'

'Alright then.' Said Akio, 'Let's get back on track, about Dobermon's size problem.'

'So, open up the menu first.' Said Katsumi.

Before Akio could touch any buttons, the menu had already popped out it self.

'I could access to any of your digivice's function, handy, huh?' said dotAgumon

'Then follow Katsumi's instructions.' Said Akio

'Chose the "compress" function.' Said Katsumi.

Same as before, the device had done it automatically. Next, Dobermon glowed and diminished, until he reached the size of a normal dog.

'You can use "expand" to return him while necessary, like in battle.' Katsumi added. 'It's late now, got to go home, any more questions?'

'No, thanks.' Akio replied, 'And glad to hear you want to go home, good night.'

Akio took Dobermon and dotAgumon back home. To his relief, his uncle and aunt didn't have a negative reaction towards Dobermon, indeed, they were happy about Dobermon's joining.

'Sorry for you Dobermon, you can only sleep on the floor, but I can find you some cushions.' Said Akio.

'No need, it's fine for me.' Dobermon replied, already closed his eyes and rested.

'Then so be it.' Akio muttered. He detached his digivice and rested it beside his pillow, then lied on his bed.

'Remember to keep me save.' Said dotAgumon, 'There will be bad guys aim at your digivice for me, I guess you have already seen one.'

'Yeah,' Akio replied, 'I'll be responsible for my own property, so stay quiet and let me sleep.'

X. X. X

Day3

Akio didn't wake up until 10:00am, his two digimons were already awaked and one was eating breakfast. The other one, well, how are you going to feed something live in 2-dimention?

'Good morning.' Said Akio to his digimons and his aunt, his uncle has already gone working. 'What did you feed him?' Akio asked, pointing at Dobermon's direction.

'Just some hams and bacons.' His aunt replied, 'You know, dogs usually like those.'

'Hams and bacons.' Akio muttered, 'Guess I will need some too.' He then sat by the table, quickly ate his breakfast.

'Feel like going out today?' his aunt asked him.

'No,' Akio answered, 'Not now.' The red haired boy then walked back to his room, with Dobermon followed. Akio picked the Aurail G3 up and placed it at his desk,, and then sat down, switched the computer on.

'Thought you've forgotten me.' Said dotAgumon

'Apparently not.' Said Akio, 'Just why and how did you get trapped in this thing?'

'Not telling you~'

Akio typed the word 'dotAgumon' and searched it, yet, nothing could be found. _How about this? _He searched 'Agumon' this time, as he expected, general informations of Agumon were shown, totally useless. _Maybe this could work._ He searched 'Urban legends of Agumon', and read several of them, until he finally spotted something. 'dotAgumon, a digimon that lives in tales, it is said that only a few had met it. That's all?' said Akio.

'Hey, Akio?' dotAgumon asked

'What?'

'I skipped breakfast today, and now I am really hungry.' DotAgumon said

'You need to eat?' surprised by dotAgumon's words, Akio asked.

'I am a living digimon, since when did digimon stopped eating?' said dotAgumon.

'Then how should I feed you?' asked Akio

'There should be some cards named "meat", use it.' said dotAgumon

Akio checked his card deck, 'I don't have one.'

'Then go get it.'

'Alrigth,' Akio sighed, 'we're going out.' He told Dobermon, then glanced the clock, 11:07am. 'I'm sorry.' He whispered.

'Are you talking to me?' Dobermon asked

'Yeah,' said Akio

'Why are you apologizing?' asked Dobermon

'I've just left you doing nothing for nearly an hour! Feels like I'm the worse tamer ever.' Said Akio

'Listen, being partners doesn't mean sticking together, fighting all the time.' Said Dobermon

'Guess you're right.' Said Akio, 'But when you need anything, feel free to tell me.'

'Certainly.' Answered Dobermon.

'Can you guys get going now? I am starving!' dotAgumon complained.

'OK,ok.' Said Akio and Dobermon. 'Aunt, I'm going out now, won't be back for lunch, but will be for dinner.'

'Then take care of yourself.' Akio's aunt replied.

Akio, currently on the street, have no idea about where to go. _Maybe Ichirou can help this._ He then walked to Ichirou's shop.

'You means the food cards?' asked Ichirou after hearing dotAgumon's story. 'They hadn't been produced for a while, sorry.'

'Never mind, but can you suggest some place that I can find them?' asked Akio

'Sorry about that, I really don't know, perhaps you should ask Katsumi.' Ichirou suggested.

'Thanks, I will.' Said Akio, 'Bye!'

As Akio walked away, another conversation began.

'I am dying.' DotAgumon muttered.

'Just hold on for a little bit longer.' Said Dobermon, 'Hey, Akio, when are we going to meet Katsumi?'

'At noon, yesterday's park.' Said Akio

'You mean I can't eat until afternoon?' said dotAgumon

'May be even later.' Said Dobermon. Akio laughed.

'It's just five more minutes until noon.' Said Akio, 'She may has already arrived.'

Like Akio said, they arrived at the park to find out that Katsumi and Chessmon had already been in there. Akio walked up to her, and explained dotAgumon's story.

'I wonder if they have got any of that kinda cards.' Katsumi whispered to herself.

'Who they?' asked Akio

'Some bad kids like me, but they form a gang instead of acting alone, they've got almost every rare things.' Said Katsumi

'We shall pay them a visit.' Said Dobermon

'I don't think they will like you.' Said Chessmon, 'and neither will you like them.'

'Just meet them first.' Said Akio.

'Alright.' Said Katsumi. Akio and Dobermon followed Katsumi and Chessmon to a hidden corner of a street. There they saw a group of kids and their digimon partners, about ten to twenty in number. 'You children are horrible, did I mentioned that before?' said Akio

'You're not that much older.' Said Katsumi as she walked into the gang, a kid, who seems to be the leader of the gang, walked toward Katsumi.

'Jack.' Said Katsumi to the leader. _Not a freaken __Japanese__ name._ Thought Akio.

'Katsumi,' the one that appeared to be Jack said, 'thought you have forgotten us.'

'I wish I could.' Said Katsumi, 'just get to point, do you have any food cards?'

Jack put his hand in his pocket, then pulled out five cards.

'This is it!' dotAgumon whispered to Akio in excitement.

Katsumi then started a conversation with Jack that Akio didn't pay much attention to. The red haired boy slowly walked around, the digimons around them didn't look friendly, they looked rather aggressive. Akio slowly set his finger to his digivice's button, hoping no one can notice his action, then returned Dobermon to his normal size, prepared to combat, like those surrounded them.

'I won't pay that much!' this was the first line from Katsumi Akio knew after he had paid attention to the conversation. 'That price is ridiculous!' she shouted.

'Then you shall leave.' Said Jack. 'Oh, did I mentioned that these are the only few remained in this district, or probably in this city.' He added.

'Such a jerk.' Dobermon whispered.

'Then we'll have to settle it in the old fashion way.' Said Katsumi. 'Prepare to fight.' She whispered to Akio.

'What?' Akio asked, obviously confused, 'Can't we talk this out?'

'No, we can't.' said Jack, 'everyone loves the old fashion way.'

'What old fashion?' Akio shouted, the feeling of knowing nothing isn't that good.

'The winner have it all.' Said Chessmon.

'Winner of what?' asked Akio

'Fight.' Answered Katsumi. 'I told you to get ready.'

'We've out numbered you.' Said Jack, 'still want to fight?'

'Of course.' Said Katsumi, standing back to back with Akio, surrounded by groups of Allomons and Evilmons and Greymons.

'Go! Dobermon!' Akio shouted, Dobermon immediately leaped on one Greymon and kicked it down, followed by a few movements of leap and kick or slash, half of the gang's digimons were knocked out of conscious.

'Magical Stick' said Katsumi's digivice as she inserted a card. Chessmon then swung her staff, stroke multiple targets heavily, knocked them all off.

'We out numbered you this time.' Said Katsumi, as all the gang's digimons were beaten, except for Jack's.

Jack said nothing, but looked furious. A giant black mechanic digimon walked out from the shadow of the alley.

'BlackWarGrowlmon.' Akio read the information shown on his digivice.

'Attack!' shouted Jack, Dobermon and Chessmon backed off in time before they got sliced into pieces by BlackWarGrowlmon's Pendulum blades.

'Atomic Blaster.' Said Jack's digivice. BlackWarGrowlmon then got all his gunports on his chest charged up, 'Defense Plug-in C' said Akio's Aurail G3 as Akio slide the card before Dobermon leaped forward and shielded the remaining three from the blast. Thanks to the effect of the card, Dobermon wasn't suffered form damage beyond repair, but he still took a great damage, and wasn't able to carry on fighting.

'Again!' shouted Jack, 'Atomic Blaster.'

'Bishop Laser.' Katsumi inserted another card, Chessmon shot a beam of Laser from her staff. The beam from Chessmon crushed with BlackGrowlmon's blast, the beams are blocking their way from another, with an equal force, both digimons tried their best to keep firing until the other's beam won't offset theirs. Yet, none were able to make a break.

Not until Dobermon shot a clack beam too strengthen Chessmon's attack, in just a second, BlackWarGrowlmon was down, and so was Dobermon.

'We've won' said Akio, holding a unconscious, diminished Dobermon. 'Keep you promise.'

'I'll.' Said Jack, given up the food cards to Akio, Akio's company then left.

The red haired boy used one food card, the device read, 'meat', then a bone with meat wrapped around it fell from the upper boundary of the screen and landed on bottom boundary. DotAgumon ate it, and put a satisfied smile on his face.

'Then this.' Akio slide another card, 'Digiar600s' the digivice read. 'Feel better?' Akio asked Dobermon, who seemed to have been healed by the card's effect, but still weak.

'Feeling better now.' Said Dobermon.

'Akio.' Katsumi said, 'Keep one food card for Ichirou, as long as he has one sample, he can make copies.'

'Then I don't need to worry about the food supply.' Said Akio.

* * *

**Short bio**

**Dobermon X: A dangerous hound with a mysterious pass, he is calm and loyal to his friends, though he just knew Akio for a few minutes, they quickly partner up and this black beast would do anything for his new human allies.**

**dotAgumon: Kind of a mascot of the series, he can be so unexpectable that he is by far my favorite character.**

**By the way, I draw my characters, and when I get them done, I will upload them to my deviant art site, the username is Gipakll, incase anyone want to view them.**

**Another thing is that I am not happy with the lack of views, or reviews, how can I get more people to read this?**


	4. IV:challenge

**Thanks for all the continuous supports, they gives me motivation to write even I am so busy with all the school staffs.**

* * *

Day 6

Akio wasn't hanging out with Katsumi today, nor the pass two days. He was tired of getting involve in the gang's or other underground association's fight. The last time he and Katsumi fought Jack, Dobermon took serious damage and it took two days for the hound digimon to be fully recovered, with the aids from some cards.

Today, he went to the training center of the east, aka the gym of digimons, where they can fight each other to practice for the up coming tournament officially. 'You'd better have some train, after lying on the ground for two days.' said Akio to Dobermon while on their way to the center.

'Yeah, better have some movement, or my muscle will rust.' Said Dobermon.

'Muscle can't be rusted.' Said dotAgumon.

'As long as you got the meaning.' Said Akio as he walked into the center's hall, the place, large, bright, and was crowded, filled with all kind of tamers and their partners. Akio walked his way to the registration station to sign up for battle through the crowd. On his way, he walked pass different tamers as well as digimons, they kind of gave him a wired look, at some point, most of them didn't look friendly, which made Akio a bit nervous and kept his mouth shut. Dobermon and dotAgumon felt the pressure as well, even their partner didn't tell them to, they followed his keeping silent.

'Since you are new here, I will have to explain the rule to you.' The attendant told Akio, 'the rules are universal for all competitions, including the normal tournament and the championship.' Akio nodded, so the attendant continued, 'Each fights have a time limit of two minutes, before time's up, the one that can't keep on fighting lose. If the time's up, the one that took less damage wins. All the conditions of the digimons will be judged by the computer. No killing and attacking on the tamers are allowed, the recovery cards can only be used three times. Understood?'

'Yes.' Akio replied

The process of signing up was quick, once Akio finished signing up, someone from behind placed a hand on Akio's right shoulder, informed him to turn around. As he did so, he found that the hand belongs to a boy, approximately the same age as Akio. The boy is kind of a looker, he has spiky deep blue hair, sharp amber eyes, his neckerchief covered a little of his chin, but Akio could tell that the boy has a sharp chin. The boy wore a black tee shirt with a vertical blue strip on the middle. And a pair of black short pants. His digivice is a Phanco V5, like Katsumi's. A Megadramon, which is a red cyborg dragon digimon, float along side the boy. So that's his partner. Thought Akio

'I guess you must be Akio Nogami.' The blue haired boy said. 'I am Kin Takano.'

'Do I know you?' Akio asked in confuse.

'No, you are not suppose to know me.' Said Kin, 'but I, as well as most of the tamer here had heard of you, you are kinda famous right now.'

'Famous?' asked Akio.

'The red haired and his hound, everyone knows that you've defeated Jack the jerk.' Said Kin, 'Shouldn't you at least look a bit happy when you know you're famous?'

'First, it's not how I want people to remember me, second, the credit should goes to Katsumi and Chessmon, they were the one who do the fighting.' Said Akio, slightly angered.

'That annoying little girl, huh?' said Kin, referring to Katsumi. 'Let me tell you something, people give the credit to you because they don't like her. Why you think she didn't shown up here?'

Akio didn't respond, just stared at Kin.

'To a lot of people, she's just a bitch.' Said Megadramon.

'You dare to say that again!' shouted Dobermon, posing a battle readied look. Megadramon, in return, pointed both of his arm cannons to Dobermon, and shocked the crowds.

'Dobermon,' said Akio, 'don't.'

'Yeah, we're not suppose to settle it this way.' Kin told Megadramon, 'At least not here.' He added, obviously declaring a challenge upon Akio.

'Stay calm.' Akio told Dobermon, the two digimons then returned to their tamer's side.

'Anyway,' said Kin, 'I am taking part in the next fight, hope you see it.' he said to Akio with a menacing smile, then turned and head toward the coliseum.

'Allow me to say it, but I fu*king hate that guy.' Said dotAgumon

'Mind your language,' said Akio, 'though I feel the same way.'

'So what are we gonna do now?' asked Dobermon, 'We go and watch him fight?'

'Yeah, it's better to know more about your enemy.' Said Akio as they headed to the audience's seat.

'The next battle, Megadramon and his partner Kin Takano, versus Doumon and his partner, Ryo Koyama.' A voice announced as both tamers and digimons walked into the field.

'The fight will start in 3, 2, 1, dinng!' the bell that marked the starting of the match rang.

'Exorcism Scrolls.' Doumon made the first strike, he shot red talismans from his cuff. Megadramon flew back, avoided the attack, then pointed his arm cannon to Doumon, randomly fired a few shots, not necessarily accurate, but the blast blown up a thick smoke screen around Doumon and blinded him. Megadramon then flew into the smoke, no one could see what was going on inside, but by Doumon's being thrown to the wall after a few seconds, everyone could tell that Megadramon used his strong tail to wrap Doumon while he couldn't see the coming attack, then being thrown out of the smoke and hit the wall hard.

Doumon was crouching on the ground, struggling to get up, only to get hindered by Megadramon's shots again and again, each time, the blast didn't hit Doumon directly, like Megadramon was toying him, intended to shot a couple of miss fire.

'It's getting boring.' Kin muttered.

'Dark Side Attack.' Said the digivice. Countless of missiles fired from both of Megadramon's weaponized arms.

'Defense Plug-in C.' with the plug-in, Doumon strengthened his defense, directly took the attack, still mange to at least stand up.

'Demonic Gate.' Doumon brought up a gigantic brush, tried to paint a translucent barrier in the air to trap Megadramon.

'Oh no, you don't.' said Megadramon, 'little help, Kin.'

'Offence Plug-in A, ultimate slicer.' Kin used two cards at the same time, with enhanced power, Megadramon tore the invisible barrier apart, then gave Doumon a final punch then marked the end of the battle.

'And the winners are Megadramon and Kin Takano.' A voice announced.

Kin turned to the audiences, and gave Akio a smile, then left the coliseum.

Akio then watched a few more match, until it was his turn. He stood up, turned toward the entrance of the coliseum.

'We gonna show him some color, right?' asked Dobermon, referring to Kin.

From Akio's observation over the past few match, non of the other are as strong as Kin and Megadramon, and their attitude are really bad that anyone would want to prove they're not that strong. Never be taunted. Thought Akio, 'We're going to keep it simple, just focus on the fight, don't be distracted by other thoughts.' He told his partner.

As Akio walked into the coliseum, he heard the same announcing voice again. 'Next battle, Dobermon X and Akio Nogami versus Dinobeemon and Rafu Matsuda, the fight will begin in 3, 2, 1, diiinng!' As the bell rang, Dobermon and Dinobeemon rushed into each other, collided, and rolled a few meters away from Akio. In seconds, the roll stopped and Dobermon seemed to get the upper hand.

'Irritant Buzz.' Rafu activated Dinobeemon's move, the green-and-blue insect flapped his wing to create a high frequency sound wave that made Dobermon stopped for a moment. Using that instant, Dinobeemon kicked Dobermon off him, then grabbed Dobermon's rear leg, flew up high and thrown him on the ground. Fortunately, Dobermon managed to land safely despite suffered from a great headache that the sound wave had brought to him, yet, he can't fully concentrate on the battle with the dizzy feeling bothering him.

Jump! A voice echoed in his head, without a shadow of a doubt, he did so.

'Black Beam.' The voice came from Akio's Aurail G3. Dobermon could feel a stream of energy floating from his inside to his mouth, with no second thought, he opened his mouth, let the energy jetted out from his mouth as a black beam. The beam hit Dinobeemon, and the recoil sent Dobermon flew backward, just when Dobermon nearly hit the wall, he did a 270 degree turning and kicked the wall, leaped directly toward Dinobeemon, and crashed him to ground, finished the battle.

'The winners are Dobermon and Akio Nogami.' The same voice announced and the audiences cheered.

'Can you still go on?' Akio asked Dobermon.

'Just warming up.' the hound answered.

Akio smiled, then turned to the audiences, shouted a sentence that shocked all the audiences. 'I challenge Kin Takano!'

'What a twist we have here!' said the narrator.

Kin was a bit surprised, but he responded with action. He rode on Megadramon's back, flew down to the coliseum from the audience's seat. His act of accepting the challenge brought a climax to the atmosphere.

x x x

A teenage girl walked into the audiences, surprised by the audiences' attitude toward the match, she had never seen the audiences being so devoted. She glanced at the battle, and she was more surprised when she spotted Akio. 'Oh no, you don't.' she muttered.

x x x

Jun followed the signal of the Aurail G3 that she was chasing, ending up at the east training center. It didn't take her long to find out the new owner of the digivice, since that guy was in the coliseum. However, her eyes widened once she saw Dobermon. Did Plutomon degenerate himself? Thought Jun, But why? Though confused, she made up her mind that this threat must be taken care of as soon as possible when he's still in the champion stage.

x x x

'Diinnngg!' the bell rang, meaning the match was finsihed.

'What a shocking result!' said the narrator, 'the battle ended up tied!'

* * *

**Kin Takano: image here: gipakll. deviantart art/Kin-Takano-501176434**


	5. V: more girls

**First thing first, responds. About that two minutes rule, I guess because the game Digimon World Championship gave me a great impression, in that game, two minutes are like forever. **

**Second thing, about Dobermon fighting ultimate without digivolving, I just want to show that Dobermon is capable of dealing with digimon above his level. He won't have a single victory until he digivolved ( about ch8), I promise.**

**Third (wow, there's a lot to say), not taking in OCs, not for now, the plot is set, there is no room for other OCs. May be I will write a sequel and I will try (cause I think there will not be much reactions.) take in OC then.**

**Last but not least, this chapter is longer than normal chapters as I fused the original ch5 and 6 to make this new ch5.**

* * *

Day 7

3:04a.m.

_Is it really __she__?_ Instead of resting his brain, Akio keep thinking the same question, back at the coliseum, he spotted a teenage girl with familiar white hair, far as he knew, not many girls have it. _No, she would rather die than to come here._ He told himself countless times, but what if his nemesis is really in the city? Then he has to eventually face her.

'Akio, aren't you suppose to be sleeping?' ask dotAgumon

'You're not sleeping too.' Akio replied.

'There are things bothering me.' Said dotAgumon

'So am I.' Said Akio

* * *

12:37pm

Akio and Katsumi and Ichirou were having luncheon together, it was rare that Ichirou can have a day off working.

'I have heard about it too.' Said Ichirou, 'It's not easy to draw with Kin, I bet even Katsumi and Chessmon can't do it.'

'Hey!' shouted Katsumi, 'Do you have to say it in front of us?'

'What I mean is that Akio really have the potential to be a great tamer.' Said Ichirou

'It's actually all Dobermon's work.' Said Akio, 'All I did is sliding cards.'

'Well a tamer can't do anything practical to assist his partner other than using cards.' Said dotAgumon.

'No, they can instruct their partner through telepathying.' Said Dobermon.

Katsumi, Ichirou, dotAgumon, as well as the usually quiet Chessmon, burst out laughing. 'Telepathy?' said Katsumi.

'I can some how heard Akio's voice in my head, back when I was fighting Dinobeemon, you told me to jump, right Akio?' Dobermon defended

'Yep,' answered Akio, 'glad you'd hear.'

'Seriously?' said Katsumi, 'you believe in these kind of silly stuff?'

'Don't forget our link had saved you once, from that freaken plant.' Said Akio, left Katsumi speechless, it's true that Akio and Dobermon had saved her before they became partners.

'Guys, can we switch to some other topics?' said Ichirou, attempting to break the dead air.

'Like what?' said Katsumi.

'Like the food we're eating.' Said dotAgumon, 'I'm sick of eating raw meat everyday!'

'Still better then none.' Said Akio

'Maybe you can have a try on this.' Said Ichirou, handing Akio a card.

'What's this?' Akio asked.

'Since the last time you gave me a sample, I didn't only made copy of it, I had tried to create some other kinds of meal for dotAgumon, and here is one prototype.' Said Ichirou.

'Wanna try it out?' Akio asked dotAgumon.

'Just do it.' said dotAgumon.

Akio used the card, then all five pairs of eyes stared at the red haired boy's Aurail G3's screen, watching dotAgumon eat.

'Damn, it's good.' Said dotAgumon, 'I guess you can stoop calling it "prototype".'

'Never knew you're so good at it.' Katsumi told Ichirou

'It's not that special, compare to other professional's work.' Ichirou answered.

'You're just being humble.' Said Akio, 'Wait.' He muttered, staring outside the window, while his expression was like that he was seeing a ghost.

The others seemed to have heard his word. 'What's wrong?' asked Chessmon

'I have to go now, Dobermon, come with me.' Said Akio while he rushly got out of the restaurant, 'you two have a good time.'

'I've never seen him like this.' Said Katsumi, she looked out of the window, saw Akio ran into a white haired girl who seemed to be partnered with an Andromon, a 'semi-cyborg' digimon that has some disgusting organic parts exposed.

'Maybe is his friend?' Ichirou suggested.

'Speaking of friends,' Katsumi muttered, 'I've never saw him hanging out with any other human friends beside us.'

'Maybe he just kept it secret.' Said Chessmon

'Wanna follow them?' Katsumi suggested with a giggle

'Not sure if it is a good idea.' Said Ichirou, 'He won't like it.'

'He won't find out.' Said Katsumi, 'come on~'

'Alright.' Ichirou gave in, 'just this once.'

* * *

Akio walked into the white haired girl, she waved at him, proving that she knew him. The first thing that Akio noticed was the digivice on her arm. And the girl seemed to saw the question from Akio's look. 'We're not talking at the middle of the street.' She said, 'follow me.'

Akio did so without any question. 'Who's she?' asked Dobermon on their way.

'Sister, arch-enemy.' Said Akio

'You have a sister?' asked Dobermon

'Not really, we were just very close friends that called each other brother and sister.' Said Akio. Soon they arrived at a building.

'You live in a hotel?' Akio muttered, 'where did you get those money, Reiko?'

'Tournaments' prize.' Reiko answered, 'small scale one, so you can't see me on tv.'

'Small scale?' Akio questioned as he walked into the room, 'this room is way too deluxe.'

'I took different tournaments,' said Reiko, 'and I spent them all here.' She paused, 'I know what you're thinking, just say it.'

'I never thought I will have to see you again.' said Akio

'And I never thought I will want to see you again,' said Reiko, 'but I just couldn't leave you alone.'

'You were the one who oppose the most when I said I want to be a tamer.' Said Akio, 'and now this?' he turned his sight on Andromon.

'Well, I moved to this city not long after you did, and something happened that changed my mind.' Said Reiko.

'That must be a big thing.' Said Akio, remembering all the fights he had with her over the topic of being a tamer or not.

'Let the past be in the past.' Said Reiko.

'And let our friendship be buried in the past.' Said Akio before Reiko could finish her sentence. He then turned and ready to leave. 'Did you actually live in this hotel for as long since you arrived?'

'No, just this two days.' Said Reiko, 'I live at the south.'

'Then why are you here?' asked Akio

'To pay you a visit.' Said Reiko, 'I've heard that you're on holiday.'

Instead of saying another words, Akio left the building.

"I think she want to be friend with you again.' said Dobermon, 'should you at least give her a chance?'

'I don't want to.' Said Akio, 'why can't she just leave me alone?'

'Just what had happened?' asked Dobermon

'He won't say it.' dotAgumon finally spoke after long silence, 'brotherhood is a very special relationship.'

'Like you know everything.' Commented Dobermon

Thoughts were echoing in Akio's head, he didn't even know where he was heading to, when he woken up from those thoughts, he found him self ended up in an alley. _Yet another alley?_

The sky was getting dark, but Akio just stayed there. 'You don't look happy.' Said an familiar voice, it's not from Dobermon or dotAgumon, Akio turned toward the direction of the voice, it's Katsumi, along side with Chessmon and Ichirou.

'Not before you guys shown up.' said Akio

'I told her not to track you.' Said Ichirou.

'There's no problem with that,' said Akio, 'I would do the same when you two are dating.'

'So who is she?' asked Katsumi, as Akio heard it, he turned back to his not-so-happy face without knowing it himself. 'Sister, nemesis, arch-enemy.' He said the same thing told Dobermon before.

'I think we should talk about something else.' Suggested Ichirou before Katsumi could say 'I don't know you have a sister.'

'Very good observation.' Said dotAgumon. 'Guys, ready for a fight.' He suddenly changed to a serious tone.

'What's wrong?' asked Akio

'I can feel him.' Said dotAgumon, 'just get ready, don't forget we're in a dangerous place.'

Just when dotAgumon finished his words, a breath of fire was shot at Dobermon, luckily, everyone were able to dodge the attack. 'I told you.' Said dotAgumon, 'and apparently, this was just a warning shot.'

'How come you know so much?' said Akio

'Far as I knew, there's only one Monochromon with X-antibody,' said dotAgumon, 'and I believe he had digivolved to a Triceramon X.'

'You can even tell its identity?' surprised by dotAgumon, Akio couldn't help to shout it out.

'Yep, I can see him, right in that shadowed corner, though you probably wouldn't know which way I am pointing at.' Said dotAgumon, relax as nothing had happened. 'And there's only one person I know that is partnered with a Monochromon X, or a Triceramon X now, whatever, just show yourself, Jun, I know you're not that sneaky.'

A Triceramon X and a human girl walked out of the shadow, 'Charge up, Blaze Blast, Offense Plug-in A.' said the plane mechanic voice of a digivice, obviously, the girl had used three cards at once.

'Never seen any combo like that.' Commented Katsumi. The Triceramon charged, and would be able to shot a great blast at any moment.

'Defense Plug-in C' Akio used.

'Emergency Program Halt.' The girl used another card, disabled the defense plug-in Akio used. Triceramon them shot a fireball at Dobermon.

'Speed Plug-in B.' with enhanced speed, Chessmon took Dobermon out of the attack range just in time. Though missed, the fireball exploded, Akio's group was lucky that no one got hurt. Just by the damage done by the attack to the surrounding, no one wouldn't shock by what a lethal attack combo the girl had preformed.

'You're not that pure little girl I used to know.' Said dotAgumon

'Time change, people grow.' Said Jun, 'If you have to defend that Dobermon, I will have no choice but to fight you too.' The blonde girl told Chessmon. 'Just leave that Dobermon and his digivice.'

'Never.' Said Akio and Katsumi at the same time, 'step back, Ichirou, there's going to be a tough fight.' Said Katsumi

'You left me no choice.' Muttered Jun, 'Ready, Triceramon.'

'Magical Stick.' Chessmon did the first attack, swung her staff to hit Triceramon, though look chunky, Triceramon has a very short reaction time, he grabbed the staff, and then did a 270 rotation to throw it away with Chessmon. While Dobermon leaped toward Tricermon from his behind, tried to use his blades to slice the dinosaur, only to got slammed by Tricermon's powerful tail, immediately dropped to the ground.

'Bishop Laser.' Chessmon shot a laser beam from a distance.

'Speed Plug-in B' Tirceramon moved away fast as if he had disappeared form his initial spot and then suddenly appeared at another. As the target had got away, Chessmon's beam nearly hit the lying Dobermon.

'Come on.' Akio uttered, he gave Katsumi a look, the black haired nodded.

'Speed Plug-in B.' said both of their digivice.

'Defense Plug-in C.' Jun used.

Dobermon and Chessmon were so fast that they couldn't be seen moving by bear eyes. Their high frequency attacks seemed to have damaged the Triceramon a bit, not by much. Soon as the effect of the card wore off, Akio and Katsumi tried to use the same trick again.

'Item inhibit.' Jun used another card. Akio and Katsumi soon found out that they can't use any cards regarded as item, such as those Plug-in and recovery.

'Then how about this?' muttered Dobermon

'Black beam.'

'Bishop laser.'

The two digimons fired beams as the same time, the two beams combined to a more powerful attack that stroke toward Tricermon.

'Blaze Blast, Offence Plug-in A.' Triceramon countered with his fireball attack again, when the beam hit the fireball, some amazing physical reaction happened, the two attack fused together, and it's striking towards Dobermon and Chessmon. The two targeted digimons dodged to different directions, but the explosion's force still had them badly damaged.

'I'd told you to leave.' Said Jun, bringing up another card, going to gave one final attack.

'We leave as a whole team.' Said Akio

'Then you may as well die together.' Said Jun coldly, 'all I asked is to leave that Dobermon, is that demon really worth your life?'

'Just what had you done in the past?' Akio whispered to Dobermon.

'Whatever I did, I can't recall them now!' said Dobermon.

'Gatling Attack.' Much to everyone's surprises, there's another voice of digivice, Akio and Katsumi looked to each other, non of them had took any actions, and Jun's card was still on her hand. Next, the voice of a firing galting gun could be heard, streams of bullets flying toward Triceramon, though not every single bullet could hit its target, they worked well as cover fire.

'All of you, get out of here!' a familiar voice said, though only Akio found it familiar.

Akio's group turned to the direction of the voice, they saw the girl outside the window earlier. 'I'll hold that dinosaur, run while you can!' Commended Reiko.

Akio and Katsumi compressed their partners to a carriable size, Katsumi and Ichirou carried Chessmon and Dobermon, ran a few meters, while realizing that Akio was still at the battle field, 'Come on, Akio. Move!' shouted Katsumi

'I don't know what happened between you and Reiko, but you'd better listen to her for now.' Said dotAgumon, Akio was finally convinced, then ran with his friends.

* * *

Day 8

Akio didn't have a good sleep, or even didn't sleep, again. He fixed his sight on the dull light gray ceiling for a time so long that he had lost count, just considering the same question again and again. Until he had finally made up his mind, he pulled out his phone, reached Reiko's number on the contacts list, which kinda surprised him when he found that he didn't delete that number. He text her a message 'If you're not dead yet, come see me tomorrow at the training center.'

'Dotty,' Akio muttered, 'Is she one of the bad guys you mentioned before?'

'No.' answered dotAgumon, 'she's not.'

'You know her?' asked Akio, 'I heard your little talk with her.'

'Yes I know her but I won't tell you much other than her name's Jun and she is not an enemy.' Said dotAgumon

_Keeping secret again?_ thought Akio, 'It's like she's targeting on Dobermon.'

'She has a very good reason to misunderstand him.' Said dotAgumon

* * *

It was just 6:00am on the morning, and Kin had already beaten two rogues, of course, through the means of digimon battle. 'One more to go.' He said to himself, Megadramon slammed the foe's Jagamon with his tail, ended the battle without even using a single move. 'Run while you can!' Kin threatened the rogues, who did exactly as Kin told them to.

'Told you not to use the short cut.' Said Megadramon. The formation of alleys in the east is like a maze, one can easily access to anywhere through this system, but there are so many unexpected hidden in the maze.

'I though those guys had already forgot me.' Replied the blue haired boy.

'At least they had forgotten how tough we are.' Said Megadramon. 'Anyway, let's get going.'

'Yea..' said Kin, suddenly paused. 'Did you hear anything?' he asked

'No.'

'I can definitely hear she.' Said Kin as he followed the direction of the sound.

'She?' though confused, Megadramon followed his partner.

'Arrr.' A soft female voice could be heard.

'It's near.' Kin uttered. He arrived at a very dark corner of the alley, even it was morning, anything in that corner was hardly visible.

'I'll light up here.' Said Megadramon, lighted a spark on his arm cannon to use as a torch.

'Oh, dear Yggdrasill.' Shocked by what he saw, Kin exclaimed. At the distant of a few meters, there was a girl in front of him, long blonde haired, holding a doll size Triceramon in her arms, wearing a lavender tee shirt which was full of cuts, and so was the brown trousers that she was wearing. It's more suitable to say that she's a naked girl covered by some tattered rags.

Kin rushed to the girl, who apparently needed help. 'You alright?!'

The girl slowly opened her emerald eyes, 'Get away!' she pushed Kin's shoulder at a sudden, intended to get rid of him, but she didn't had enough strength to do so.

'What happened to you?' asked Kin politely, 'I just want to help you.'

'I got shot by a gatling gun.' The girl replied.

'What!?' Kin looked into the cuts of the girl's clothes, there were no wounds on the girl. 'but you…'

'I know, no wounds, huh?' said the girl, 'see this.' She picked up a piece of sharp glass on the ground, then sliced it through her face.

'What are you doing?!' Kin shouted in surprise, reaching his hand to stop the girl, but was too late.

'Just watch.' Said the girl, the wound on her face healed itself in seconds. 'I'm no ordinary human.'

Kin touched the girl's face softly, seeing her draw back a little, he said 'But you can still feel the pain?'

'Why can't you just get scared and ran off like normal people do?' the girl muttered softly, then trying to stand on her own, but lost her balance quickly, luckily, she was caught by Kin.

'I don't care you're human or not, I'm helping you to go home.' Said Kin, 'There's no way you can make it on your own.'

'I don't have a home here.' Said the girl weakly, 'It was in the digital world.'

'Then you stay at my home first, until you get batter.' Suggested Kin, since the girl didn't show any sign of resistance, he had Megadramon carried the girl on his back.

'How should I call you by the way? My name is Kin Takano.'

'Jun Kawasaki.' The girl mumbled in a low volume that could hardly be heard, though Kin still got the words.

So they arrived at Kin's home in a few minutes, it was a small apartment, only one sizeable living room, a bath room and a kitchen, that's all. The walls and ceiling are left unpainted in a dirty gray color.

Kin set the girl on the bed softly, 'Just take a nap now.' He told Jun. In respond, the blonde slightly nodded, and fell in a deep sleep. Seeing that, Kin smiled with a relief. The Triceramon that associated with Jun walked up to the blue haired boy, handed him a piece of paper.

'What's this?' asked Kin

'Her size.' Replied the triceratops, 'just in case you want to buy her something to wear.'

'Thanks.' Said Kin as he walked out the door, 'Megadramon, you stay here, in case anything happened, I'll be back soon.'

* * *

Akio was sitting at one corner of the training center, though not easy to be noticed, Reiko had her own way to locate her brother. As she walked up to Akio, the red haired boy took the first line, 'You survived.'

'I was expecting you to say something else.' The white haired girl replied, 'your openning speech still sucks.'

'Just skip to the point, you know what I'm going to say.' Said Akio, 'Did you have Andromon aimed at that girl?'

'No, I had him shot at her.' Said Reiko.

Just for that moment Akio wanted to say something like 'Had you gone bananas?!' or other expressions, the Reiko he used to know would point a gun at anyone without a shadow of a doubt when necessary, but she would never fire it. Yet, Akio held his words back due to his own observation, there's something reflective in the girl's eyes, maybe it's tears?

'I thought that Triceramon would shield the girl.' Said Reiko.

_Finally developed a __sense__ of guilty? _Thought Akio, usually, he would just spill the words out without a bit caring of the other side's feeling, but now, at that kind of atmosphere, silence is the best option.

After a while of silence, Reiko spoke again, 'I'm going back to the south today.'

'Can't you stay a bit longer?' asked Akio out of the blue, even the red haired boy himself never thought he would make a request like that. 'maybe we can be cool again.'

'Maybe.' Said Reiko, 'I'll have to ask my parents, you know, I can't stay at the hotel forever, I'm running out of cash.'

'About that, I've got an brilliant idea.' Said dotAgumon after long silent.

* * *

It was evening, Kin had already returned home, he sat by the bed for a time so long that he fell asleep too, while he was intended to watch over Jun. He had a talk with Triceramon not long ago, after knowing Jun's back story, he decided, he will do whatever to assist the blonde under any circumstances, yet, he couldn't even watch over her for just a while, not until he was woken up by the girl's screaming.

'What's wrong?' Kin asked in fear as he saw the girl sprung up from the bed. She looked pale, pupils downsized, hardly catching up her breath, and, in addition, sweating heavily.

'Another nightmare?' said Triceramon, but Jun was too scared to heard.

All Kin could do to calm the blonde was to hold both of the her hands, keep telling her 'It's o'kay, nothing bad's gonna happen here.', of course, in a soft tone. Thanks to Yggdrasill's bless, Jun recovered soon.

'Feeling better?' asked Kin

'Yes, thank you.' Jun answered with an innocent face.

'Take a shower first,' suggested Kin, 'you're all sweaty now. And I have bought you some new clothes.' He turned his sight to the closet, then back to Jun again, 'You can't just be half naked when you're on the street.'

'Thanks.' Jun mumbled, she couldn't think of any expression of appreciation other than 'thanks', but she couldn't say nothing.

Unlike other girls, it didn't take a long time for Jun to shower, she finished it in just ten and a few minutes, because she didn't want to add too much more on Kin's water bill, she could tell that the boy is not very wealthy by his living environment, and it's not her nature to have others 'pay' for her. She dried herself, put on her new outfit, an orange v-neck short sleeves tee shirt, a skinny jeans, and a black midriff jacket that she decided not to wear for now since the weather is quite hot.

Jun walked out of the bathroom, 'You look great.' Said Kin.

'Really?' she blushed a bit, though it's not the first time to have someone telling her this.

'Dinner's ready.' Said Kin, 'You won't want to leave it cold down.'

'You don't need to do that much for me.' Jun said

'If I recall it correctly, you're the homeless one.' Said Kin, 'and you didn't object to live with me.'

'There's lots of homeless out there.'

'You're special.' Said Kin, 'Triceramon told me. You don't have to take it all alone.'

'I have to,' said Jun, 'so many had died in my name.'

'You can't do this on your own,' said Kin, 'your previous fight had proven it. At least let me help you on the fight.'

'He's right,' said Triceramon, 'it won't do much harm to him.'

Jun thought for a while, 'Alright, but this alliance ends once Plutomon, or Dobermon right now, is dead,'

* * *

'So here is where you live?' said Reiko

'You're not expecting it to be as fancy as you hotel room.' Said Akio, as he accepted dotAgumon's suggestion of letting Reiko to move to his place, only god knows why he would take this suggestion back then, because he thought Reiko would be less picky than she used to be?

'Nonetheless, it's a nice place.' Said Reiko

'Just settle down your staff.' Said Akio, _I__ hope it__'__s going to be fine, living with her__…_

* * *

**Reiko: Her place was originally a male character, but I decided to turn him into her along with a new outlook design, white long pony tail, she has some history with Akio. link: **** gipakll. deviantart art/ Reiko-502826838**

**Andromon: Reiko's partner, I'm not giving him any spoken line. Though he is a cyborg, I consider he has a heart of steel, and most likely 'soulless' (Andromon:That is why I have no fear! - me:you are not suppose to talk!)**

**Jun Kawasaki: the very core character of the story, can't finish her bio with just a few sentences, you will learn more about her in later chapters. link: **** gipakll. deviantart art/ Jun-Kawasaki-502271477**

**Triceramon X: Jun's most loyal companion and her best friend. I would like to keep the D-cyber tradition, to digivolve this guy, he needs to die twice.**


	6. VI: Battle at the bay

Day15

Akio, accompanied with his digimon partners, were at the Razor Bay, staring at the furious waves, thinking _He is the one who invited me and now he is the one who is late._

_It had been a week since Reiko moved to live with Akio, he had already got used to her, since she __didn't__ change much. Dobermon, on the other hand, had recovered from the injuries that he got from the battle with Triceramon, and was doing well. Lately, Akio had __received__ a message from a person that he hated, Kin Takano. _

'_Beeeeeeep!__'__ Akio__'__s Aurail G3 rang, meaning that he had got something in box, __'__Reiko, your s__pa__m__m__ing?__'__ That__'__s the first idea Akio had came up with, though everyone in the room know that he was just joking. _

'_I what?__'__ asked Reiko, walked out of the bathroom, with just a towel wrapping her body, water dripping from her long, untidy white hair, __'__I am in the middle of showering, how could __I__ do that? __The__ digivice __isn't__ very well __waterproof__.__'__ She then walked up toward Akio, sat next to him on the bed, __'__what__'__s that?__'_

'_Whatever it is, it__'__s for me, none of your __business__.__'__ Said Akio, __'beside__, you would just hack in this device, like you always did, so you __don't__ even need to ask my approve.__'_

'_There is no fun to just hack in.__'__ said Reiko, __'__come~on, let me see it.__'_

'_Alright.'__ Akio gave in, he always found himself lack of __resistance__ toward his a-bit-older sister__'__s __'__'__ tone, he did try to, but failed every single time. __'__Let__'__s see.__'__ Akio started to read, __'__Nogami, I need a talk with you, can you come meet me at the Razor Bay tomorrow__'__s noon? From, Kin Takano?!__'_

'_Still love your reading,__'__ said Reiko, __'__but what__'__s with that __exclamation__ at the last bit?__'_

'_That guy, Takano, is kind of a unfriendly fellow,__'__ said Akio_

'_You see everyone unfriendly, __don't__ you?__'__ said Reiko, __'__That__'__s why you have so few friends.__By the way, that Razor Bay is a extremely __dangerous__ place, you might just slipped and got __swallowed__ by the un stoppable waves, no matter what__'__s the __purpose__ of the meeting, __I__ can ensure you that__'__s up to no good, you __shouldn't__ go.__'_

'_No, I__'__ll go.__'__ Not to Reiko__'__s surprise, her brother__'__s __adventurous__ spark still glow in his heart, though it__'__s not as bright as it used to be. And when Akio decided to do something, nothing could stop him, his being a __tamer__ is a living example. __'__Just be careful.__'_

So here he was, at the rocky costal area, yet, the spiky blue haired boy was no where to be seen. 'Maybe I have come to a wrong place.' Akio muttered.

'Not very likely, the online map said it is the place.' Said dotAgumon.

'Then where is he?'

Dobermon was keeping silence since they arrived, carefully observing their surroundings, 'He's here, I can smell him.' Said the big dog, as Kin and his partner, Megadramon entered the Bay.

'You're late.' Said Akio

'No, it's just you arrived early.' Kin replied.

'Why here?' asked Akio, 'because no one dare to come here so that you can kill me secretly?'

'Partly correct.' Said Kin, 'but I'm not here to kill you, I'm coming after Dobermon.'

_Dobermon again?_ thought Akio, if he recalled correctly, the Triceramon they fought a week age was coming after Dobermon as well.

'Nogami, gave that Dobermon up while you still can, you have no idea what he was.' said Kin

'No one ever told me, how am I suppose to know?'

'Didn't you tell him, Plutomon?' said Megadramon with a smirk, 'but why would you told him, in fact, why would you care about a human kid when you had killed so many of his kind?'

'What? Who's Plutomon?' asked Akio in both confuse and fear.

'That.' Said Kin, pointed his index finger toward Dobermon.

Akio looked at Dobermon, he totally understand the shocked expression of Dobermon, having the knowledge that he used to be a murder, it must be extremely difficult for any anyone suffered from amnesia to accept, and worse, fear that his friend would leave him out of the fear toward him. So Akio decided, 'Listen, Dobermon had no memory of his past, no matter what he had done, that is not his present self, he is good right now, and I'm not going to let him pay for his crime that his past self had left, I won't give him up.'

'Where did you learn all that?' asked dotAgumon.

'From me.' Said a deep, steady male voice, Akio turned to look, it was the Triceramon X and the blonde girl that he thought was gunned down by Andromon. 'Final chance, give up that Dobermon.' Said Jun in a cold tone, 'as well as that dotAgumon.'

'Dotty.' Akio whispered, 'call for the girls.'

'I'm doing.' Said dotAgumon.

'I will only say it once, I am not leaving my friends, if you want them, well, I guess you know what I am going to say.'

'Black beam.' Akio decided not to be passive, it's better when fighting a one on two battle, when the other side are both stronger than his.

Dobermon was smart, he adjusted the shooting angle, the beam was shot slightly above Megadramon, making him dodged downward, still in mid-air, but low enough that Dobermon can easily leap on Megadramon's back, plus Akio's decision of keeping Dobermon small, now he is not a easily aimed target.

'Get off me!' Megadramon growled, trying to catch Dobermon, it's already not easy to catch Dobermon in that unreachable position, and Megadramon's three clawed blaster hand just make it even unhandier.

'Shake him off!' shouted Kin, 'Speed Plug-in B'

'Charge up, Blaze Blast' used Jun, 'Fire when Dobermon fell off.'

'Oh no,' Akio muttered, if Dobermon fell off, he would definitely got shot, if he jump off Megadramon, he can't do anything in mid-air, and the result will be getting shot too, he can use the defense plug-in C, but Dobermon would still suffer from great damage, and probably couldn't hang on until Katsumi or Reiko has come. Then a sudden thought passed Akio's head. 'Dobermon, can you swim?'

'Yeah, what's the plan?' said Dobermon, while busy trying not to lose grip of Megadramon.

'Jump!' Akio shouted

Dobermon did what he was told to without a doubt, as Triceramon fired at the hound. The fireball draw near and near, just when it was to hit Dobermon. 'Black beam.' Dobermon set fire at Megadramon, got the dragon's right wing shot with some luck. The reaction force pushed Dobermon back, accelerated him, just in time when the fireball passed by, but never met its target. Dobermon then dropped into the water, which hided his track. 'Nice shot.' DotAgumon commented.

As one of the wings was damaged, Megadramon was forced to land, he don't have any legs, so his mobility is greatly decreased, yet, he still had two blasters to shoot with. Triceramon, on the other hand, was barely moving at all, as he knew that Dobermon couldn't stay in the water forever, once the oxygen is used up, he had to come back to the land, and that will be the time to attack.

The humans were busy too, Kin rushed up to Akio, both hands griped Akio's neckline, pushed him to a wall of irregularly shaped, sharp stones, Akio was lucky not to got his head smashed in one of those lethal edges. 'Why do you have to do this?' Kin questioned Akio in anger, 'When I try to be friendly, and you go the completely opposite way, like the last time at the training center, that sudden challenge, wasn't a friendly one, huh?'

'Yep.' Akio replied, knowing that it would anger the spiky blue haired. As he expected, Kin threw him to the ground. Being smashed into rocks isn't very enjoyable, the red haired got several parts of his body bleeding, though most of the cuts weren't very deep, it's pain enough that Akio had a hard time standing up. He had his right hand holding the left elbow, he crouched down as he lacked the strength to support his body.

'Just think of who's good to you, the yellow bitmap that holds all the secrets back?' said Kin while walking toward Akio.

'Definitely not someone that throws me on these sharp edged rocks.' Akio replied.

Dobermon couldn't hold his breath anymore, he had to get back to the surface or he is committing suicide. But once he left the water, there is a guarantee that his foes would get the upper hand, and then he would be screwed, staying in the water isn't an option, too, he had no choice but to jump at full force, hoping he is fast enough that he could dodge some attack. Yet, in battle, things usually go the opposite way as you anticipated, same case here, just when Dobermon left the water, he got caught by Triceramon, who is way too fast than he looked. Dobermon didn't even had the chance to take a breath. 'Crush you to death!' Though Dobermon's body had attached lots of blades, Triceramon never hesitated to tighten his grip. 'This ends here!'

'It ends when I say it ends!' Akio recognized, it's Katsumi's voice. 'Bishop Laser.'

Chessmon shot a beam towards the green triceratops, the attack was too weak to damage him, but Chessmon had got the chance to save Dobermon while Triceramon released his grip for an instant.

'Just right in time.' said Katsumi as she walked to Akio. In the meantime, Reiko and Andromon had arrived, too.

'Now the full team assembled.' Said Akio

'Wow, how come she survived that?' Reiko mumbled as she saw the completely fine Jun

'Akio, bring me to that blonde.' Said dotAgumon, ' I may be able to talk this out.'

'Why didn't you say that already?' said Akio, 'that could save us so much time, and effort.'

As they are talking, Megadramon had already adopted the lost of his wing and is now moving like a sneak, his three shots came so sudden that Chessmon wasn't able to dodge it in time.

'Reiko, you take care of that Triceramon, Dobermon, you help Katsumi and Chessmon fight Megadramon.' Akio ordered.

Mean while, Plutomon was in somewhere of the Digital World, watching over Akio's fight through a monitor.

'Just makes my job easier.' He smiled, heading toward a portal.

So each of Akio's team's digimon moved to their position. Akio, busy dodging any attacks from the cross fire, rushed straight forward to Jun, while knocked off by the blonde girl's unexpected punch.

'Stop it!.' dotAgumon shouted, 'can't you see how meaningless is this fight?'

'You are the only one that have no right to say it!' Jun shouted, 'I won't let Plutomon hurt anyone else!'

'He IS NOT PLUTOMON!' shouted dotAgumon.

'What do you mean?' Jun asked in shock, 'he is from Naoki's digivice.'

'Yes, he did come from that machine,' stated ditAgumon, 'But he is not Plutomon, he is just part of Plutomon's data extracted by Naoki before Plutomon betrayed us.'

'W…what?'

'Yeah, that's why he doesn't have any memory, because he never had!'

'Why will I believe you?'

'Just stop it for a moment!' Akio interrupted the conversation, 'What's that?' he pointed at a glowing purple portal in the sky.

'That's not very good.' DotAgumon mumbled.

A bur came out of the portal and passed by Akio in an instant. Akio felt something weird, like some part of his body was missing, he soon figured out what was happening, his digivice gone missing, or being stolen. The bur stopped at not far away, as it slowed down, Akio could have a clearer vision of it. It's a tall, skinny, black humanoid digimon, with a giant red cape. Akio spotted his Aurail G3 was in the digimon's hand.

'Plutomon!' Akio heard Jun mumbled in both fear and Anger.

All the battle stopped, both sides turned to see what happened. 'Here's a gift.' Said Plutomon as he jumped back to the portal, too fast for anyone to catch, but the portal didn't close, instead, another digimon came pass the portal, this one is a giant, nasty one.

'Millenniumon.' Reiko read the information on the digivice

* * *

**Really want more people to read the upcoming two chapters, can't wait to see how the M-Mon fans react**


	7. VII: before the big fight

**Another disclaimer: I don't quite follow the 'official toughness' of the digimons, if you guys don't like how I portary Milenniummon in this and the next ch, you are very weclome to rage on me**

* * *

A Millenniummon passed through the portal and landed on not far away from the bay, all the dust and mud that flew up due to the monster's landing could be clearly seen even from a distant.

Everything had happened so sudden and so quick, Akio's brain couldn't handle such amount of information in that short period of time, it just made Akio even more tired. 'What…Just..What is…go..ing…on?' leaving those words, Akio blacked out.

As he woke up again, he had already left the bay, now lying on something that feels like a bed. The red haired boy turned his head around, only to find out that Katsumi was sitting by the bed that Akio was on, Dobermon was likely sleeping on the ground. A smile of relief could be found on Katsumi's face, but that's not what Akio cared, he quickly reached out his left arm, the Aurail G3 was not attached on his arm like it usually did, he looked around, the digivice were no where to be seen. 'So it's true, all that happened at the bay.'

'Yeah.' Katsumi answered, sounded like she doesn't want to mention it. 'I am sorry for that.'

'It's not your fault,' said Akio, 'what about that Millenniummon?'

'It rocked along the costal area, then dived down the sea, nowhere to be seen even now. We tried to fight it, but…'

'But what?'

Katsumi looked at the gap of the doorway, where stood Kin. 'He told all he knew to as, but I think it's batter to let him explains it to you, I'll just let you two have a talk.'

'Wait,' asked Akio as Katsumi was walking toward the exit, 'is this your home?'

'Yep.'

Akio looked around the fancy room, 'I don't know you're that rich!' he muttered in a low volume.

Kin walked in after Katsumi left the room, 'So, what's the question?' he asked.

Akio giggled, 'Can I give you a nice little punch?'

'No.'

'Just joking.' Said Akio, 'I want to know how did the fight with Millenniummon goes.'

'The pony tail girl and Andromon grabbed you and Dobermon, then escaped, the rest of us stayed and fight,' said Kin

'Don't tell me you can't do any damage to that thing.' Akio interrupted

'Close, we did give it damage, but those wounds recovered in just a second.'

'One of Millenniummon's power?'

'No.'

'Then what's it?'

'That's a long story.' Said Kin, 'I'll tell you every I learnt form Triceramon. Wake Dobermon up, he need to listen too.'

Akio did as he was told to, 'We're ready.' said the partners.

'So, it all started six years ago. Jun, the girl that partnered with Triceramon, she was born on an island distant from the main continent in Digital World, there her family serves as the guardians of the "Pandora's Box".'

'What's that "Pandora's Box"?' asked Akio

'Be patient, I'm just about to say it. The "Pandora's Box" is a digi-egg that contain no digimon but a pure energy of evil, the same energy that make that Millenniummon and Jun nearly immortal.'

'She's an undead too?'

'Can't you just keep your mouth shut till I finished the tale?!' as Akio interrupted so many times, Kin couldn't help scolding at Akio.

'Oh I'm sorry.' Akio muttered

'So, they lived on the island, their people had protected that egg for centuries, not until six years ago, when Jun was eight, a powerful digimon attacked the island, robbed the egg, and killed her parents.'

'Why didn't it kill Jun too?' asked Akio, who realized that he interrupted again, 'I'm sorry.' He muttered.

'It was not that digimon's intention to keep Jun alive, it thought it had left no survives, but Jun survived the fatal attack, it was when she realized that the egg had leaked some of its power to her.'

'What about Tric… , sorry for the interrupted again.'

'He was strong enough to become a digi-egg after he was killed.' Said Kin, 'A day later, a man called Naoki,'

'Who was the previous owner of my Aurail G3.'

'He arrived the island, claim that he was after the digimon that stole the egg. There were two digimon came along with him.'

'Let me guess, dotty and another Dobermon?'

'Yes, dotAgumon recruited Jun to the team and began the journey, later, some more people and digimon joined the team, they became a team of six, six human and six digimon, and they called themselves the "digi-destined". Their journey lasted for a year, a year that full of suffering, until Dobermon digivolves to his mega from, Plutomon, and betrayed the team. He hunted down the team's members one by one.'

'Wow..' Akio mumbled with his eyes widened.

'I understand, I had the same reaction when I first heard it.' said Kin, 'the tale will be finished soon, let's continue. So eventually, Jun and Naoki and Monochromon were the only three left in the team, before Naoki was killed, he gave his digivice along with dotAgumon to Jun. Unfortunately, four years ago, she lost that digivice, worse, it ran out of battery, so the tracker in the digivice had lost signal too. She continue to search for the egg until it completely lost track two years ago.'

'Until I bought my digivice and things started to change?' asked Akio

'Yes, and when she saw Dobermon..'

'She made a mistake, Dobermon is part of Plutomon's data, according to dotty.' Said Akio

'That's why I have no memory at all?' asked Dobermon after long silenced.

'I guess so.' Akio replied, 'Anyway, you didn't just come here to tell a story, do you?'

'Yes, I am asking for your help, only together, we can beat that Millenniummon.' Said Kin, 'She can't do this on her own.' He added, in a nearly inaudible volume.

'I can,' said Akio, 'I can get that girl with Andromon to help too, only if she would give me the tracker of my digivice.'

'What?' said Kin in surprise, 'I'm afraid she will never agree.'

'Then you'd better find her now.' Said Akio, 'it's still evening, my most optimistic estimation is that Millenniummon won't come out until tomorrow morning, but, anying thing could happen.' The red haired then got off bed, 'come, Dobermon, we're going to Reiko.'

After Akio left, Kin had no idea of what to do next, he could go find Jun but she would never let some one else do the fight for her, that's the one thing that Kin could assure.

'You heard what he said,' Katsumi appeared in the room in a sudden, 'he can keep his promise, he really can.'

'Alright,' said Kin as he walked out of the room, 'tell him I can definitely get my job done.'

Jun was in the park, sitting on a swing, holding Triceramon that was back to doll size in both of her arms. She watched the sunset with two digimons, Triceramon and Megadramon that was keeping track on her. None of them spoke a single word, Jun was remembering her past, while Megadramon was waiting for Kin, and Triceramon just kept silence like he always did.

Someone walked toward Jun, with the orangey light of sunset so strong that the person walking toward Jun was shaded black, but everyone knew who was coming.

'What took you so long?' Megadramon was the first one to speak.

'Well, Nogami was a bit lazier than I expected.' Said Kin. He walked and sat by Jun's side.

'Wanna talk?' he asked, Jun slightly nodded. 'I want us to ally with Nogami's group, for that, he need his digivice's tracker.'

'No.' said the blonde, softly, but determinate

'Please, you don't need to take it all on your own.' Said Kin

'Just right opposite,' said Jun, 'no one should be sacrificed for me.'

_She still can__'__t walk out from the shadow._ Though Kin, _just what should __I__ do to help her?_

'_I__'__m not doing this for you.__'__ That__'__s what Akio would say._

'It's not just for you.' Said Kin

'Huh?'

'That dotAgumon, he's Nogami's friend, a very close friend I guess. It's normal for him to wanting to rescue his friend.' Said Kin, ' I'm sorry to say that, but I think you understand the feeling of losing a friend.'

Kin's words are like opening the water tape, tears fell from Jun as she fought of her fallen allies. 'I…I..I'm sorry, maybe I should have never said that..' Kin quickly apologized. Jun had no responds other than tugging her head into Kin's chest and cried for a while. She finally spoke as she wiped her tears, 'I'm sorry I didn't think of the other's feeling. You're right, Nogami has the right to seek his friend.'

A sigh of relief could be found on Kin's face, 'What about ally with them?'

'Even without my permission, they will still join the fight, won't they?'

Whoever thought Akio would go straight back home and talk to Reiko would have no right to say that he knew the red haired.

There's still time left, lots of time. So Akio decided to go for walk before going home, and where else would be a better place to spend time other than a toy store.

Akio was gazing at the newly imported Armor Knight Optimus Prime for a while, 'Reiko is going to be raging about this.'

'Huh?' asked Dobermon, 'I don't get it.'

'You don't quite know her, of course you don't get it.' said Akio, 'she thought the Japanese makes toys less, or a lot less playable, like the over excessively paint would be easily scratched. She gets mad when people praise the Japanese version for a little more paint and raised their price so high. Dare she calls herself a rationalist when she hate all Japanese toys blindly.'

'Is that why you dislike her before?'

'No, that's when I like her, I don't like rationalist, but most of the time, she is one of them. Like she had Andromon shot that blonde girl just because she want Triceramon to took the damage for the girl.'

'So your heart shaken when you saw tears in her eyes and then asked her to stay because you like her to have emotion?'

'Yes, kinda, it was dotty's idea to let her stay at my home.'

'Yeah, dotty, kinda miss when he's around.'

'We'll get him back eventually, anyway, let's go home now, some one is getting impatient.'

As expected, Reiko and Andromon were at home, waiting for the red haired and the hound.

'You probably know what I'm going to say.' Said Akio

'I'm not going if you are coming too.' Said Reiko

'What?' said the surprised Akio, 'Why?'

'First, Dobermon is just a champion, he's not strong enough. Second, you have just lost your digivice, what could you two accomplish without a card? Dobermon can't even used a move. You two will only slow us dwon.'

Akio and Dobermon gazed at each other for just a moment, 'That's what we can do!'

Dobermon roared as he lapped toward Andromon, the impact caused the two digimons to fall off from the window.

'Sorry aunt, I'll pay for that.' Akio shouted as he rolled out the apartment, luckily he only lives on the second floor, he didn't even dare to imagine how tired he would be to get to street if he lived on higher floor.

Back to the battle, Dobermon slammed on Andromon, each of his leg pressing one of Andromon's limbs, trying to keep him stay on the ground. Andromon, built to be a fighter, know exactly how to handle this kind of situations, his chest opened automatically, revealed a pair of gatling guns.

'Dobermon, dodge to the right!' shouted Akio when he arrived to see the battle.

Dobermon jumped to the right, dodged the bullets. He would have jumped to left and got crushed by an auto had Akio not instruct him. 'Glad I'd just make it in time.' said Akio while wiping his sweat.

The people on the street were scared by the sound of the gatling guns, they screamed in fear, running toward all the directions. Chaos was the one word that describe the scene most suitable. _I wonder what will it be like when we fight Millenniummon._ Thought Akio.

Grabbing the chance of this chaos, Dobermon hided himself in the crowd, then stroke Andromon from an unexpected direction, Andromon took a few step back, though avoided being hit, he ended up stepped into the road, a truck was coming in his direction and was about to hit the cybord digimon, he took a few more step back, dodge the incoming truck, but wasn't prepared for another attack from Dobermon. The hound crushed him back to the street, each legs stepping one limb of Andromon, keeping him on floor, this time, chest facing the ground, no more gatling attack.

Reiko arrived just in time to see how the battle ended.

'That's what we can do.' Said Akio

'Alright, you can come,' said Reiko, 'just hope you can keep this up to the next fight.' She added quietly.

In the digital world, at the north pole of the continent of Asgard, Plutomon arrived at the ice palace. He walked through the corridor, went straight to the main hall to meet the only digimon that is stronger than him.

'Here it is, Duke.' He kneeled in front of the white armored knight digimon that armed with a giant halberd, presenting the Aurail G3.

The Duke sat on his throne, didn't even give a glance to Plutomon. He commended, 'get that thing out of the digivice.'

'Yes, my lord.' Plutomon answered, turned around to the exit, and had a quick look at those overly realistic statues of some of the royal knights.


	8. VIII: finallydigivolution

**Yes! Over 200 views! (I know it's not a big number..)**

**Damn, giving title to each chapter is not an easy job. I should just leave them ch1. ch2 and so on since the very beginning**

* * *

'Where are we going?' asked Reiko.

'I don't know, maybe we go find Katsumi first.' Akio answered. So the four changed their direction and walked to Katsumi's house, they arrived in about twenty minutes. As they went in the house, they were surprised by two person who they thought wouldn't be in there.

'Nice to see you too.' Akio told Jun and Kin.

'I know you will come here eventually.' Said Kin, 'We've waited you four for quite a while.'

'Skip to point.' Said Akio, 'How's the deal?'

'Done.' Said Kin with a smile.

'Now what plan do we have to take down that creepy monster?' asked Katsumi

'Let the expert explain.' Said Akio, turning his sight to Jun.

'You stop calling her an expert!' Kin stepped forward, giving Akio a grim look, obviously unpleasant. He worried Akio's words would upset Jun again. But Jun put her hand on Kin's shoulder and said, 'It's fine.'

'It is actually quite simple to defeat those affected by the egg's power, simple, but hard to carry out in action.' Said Jun, 'All we need to do is to keep attack until the digimon exposed its digi-core, then the energy will leak out itself. But it takes a long time to have the energy runs out completely.'

'So its wounds will heal before the energy completely leaks out?' asked Dobermon.

'Moreover, the energy won't disappear itself, someone has to take them.' Said Jun, 'In the past, the other Dobermon, now known as Plutomon did that job.'

'That power drives him mad?' asked Akio

'I don't think so, the power is considered as evil, the power itself is natural, good or not is depend on the user.' Said Jun, 'this time, I'll do the job.'

'No, I will.' Said Dobermon, 'I don't think my close combat is needed for the coming fight, that's the only thing I can contribute.'

* * *

00:00

Day 16

The earth shook along with the rising of Millenniummon.

'Already?' Katsumi exclaimed. There was no time for further discussion, they didn't even come up with a plan. 'We got to move now!'

'Everyone except Nogami and Dobermon, come with me!' said Jun.

'What about us?' asked Akio

'I thought you just said there is only one thing you can do.' Jun said to the two, referring to the job of absorbing excessive energy.

'Alright then, good luck.' Said Akio

Down to the main street, the police was evacuating all the terrified citizens, no one knows why there was a Millenniummon going bananas and stomping around in no other place but this east district. All they know was fear, the scene was even more chaos than the street battle between Dobermon and Andromon. The police's partner digimons, mostly being WarGreymons and Justimons, had tried their best to damage the nearly indestructible Millenniummon, yet, all of them couldn't even stand one shot of Millenniummon's attack, not to mention they had made no effort on damaging the enormous monster. With no further reinforcement, retreat was the only option left.

But it was not the only option for the new group of digi-destined, after the officials were gone, it's the kids' time to run the stage.

'Everyone aim at its chest, fire with maximum power!' Jun ordered, 'Katsumi, I need you to warn us when it's about to attack.'

'How?' the goggle headed girl asked.

'Use your thermal goggles,' said Jun, 'Millenniummon's mouth and cannons should heat up while charging, only you can see it.'

'Got it.' Katsumi replied

'Now prepare for fire!' said Jun

'Bishop Laser, offense plug-in A'

'Gatling Attack, offense plug-in A'

'Dark Side Attack, offense plug-in'

'Charge up, Golden Tri-Horn Attack, offense plug-in A'

Multiple voices of digivice could be heard as multiple blast and missiles and bullets were shot toward Millenniummon, the outcome was better than expected, just one wave of attacks and the digi-core of Millenniummon was already exposed, however, the hole on its chest closed in an instant.

'We did it, I can see it,' said Chessmon, 'I can see the digi-core of Millenniummon for just a moment.'

Something's wrong, Katsumi could see it, the cannons on Millenniummon's back were heating up, yet they were pointing at random directions instead of aiming any of its foes. Though wired, Katsumi still decided to warn the others. 'Cannons incoming!' As predicted, the company didn't even need to dodge the beams.

'Is it just for me or both of you guys can feel it?' asked Reiko, 'at a closer look, this thing look pretty dead to me.' Reiko's words had just woken the other's up from their nightmare, or brought them a worse one.

_It kinda make sense now, shooting at random direction and wandering around, the power that keeps the __flesh__fresh__, could millenniummon be something like a walking dead? _Katsumi couldn't get rid of this possibility, she decided to ask the experienced. 'Could that egg's power drives the dead's body too?'

'I have never come across this kind of situation,' Jun answered, 'but there is great chance that you're right, I don't fully understand that power too.' The blonde finished the answer while inserting three other cards for attack.

'Will it be easier if Katsumi's right?' Kin shouted as Megadramon fired another missile.

'Should be easier,' Jun answered, 'then after the energy is all drained out, we don't need to take care of a remain.'

Akio and Dobermon were still hiding behind the attack group, they were told to wait until the attack group could blow a hole that stay still on Millenniummon's chest, and yet, they had make no progress. The boy and his hound were getting more and more impatient, it felt like they could spend their entire life waiting for 1% of progress, they would be dead before they could do anything if they followed the plan. _Follow the plan?_ An idea popped up in both Akio and Dobermon's heads, 'You know what I'm thinking, right?' asked Dobermon.

'Yeah, of course I know,' Akio giggled, then couldn't help turning from giggling to laughing, 'just do it, buddy, it's gonna give them a big shock.'

The attack group carried out another wave of attack, still concentrating their attacks at one point, they held nothing back every single time when they attacked, but it seemed Millenniummon was not hurt enough that its wound recovered every times before any energy could leak out. Though not working, that was the beat method they had, so they could just repeat it till there's a miracle.

Miracles wouldn't just come by like a random youtube ad, somebody had to do something, and in this case, that somebody is Dobermon. He kept his steps as quiet as he could, secretly came right behind the attacking digimons, when they fired, he leaped at full force, mixing himself in the beam or blast attack. His speed was so fast that either someone could see him, or those who saw his action were too shock to speak a word.

'Akio, what had you done!' shouted Katsumi

'Just wait and see.' The red eyed replied.

'That's truly brilliant.' Reiko mumbled

'Thanks.' Said Akio

As the smoke surrounding Millenniummon's upper torso was gone, everyone could see a hole on its chest, a hole that was just enough to fit in a Dobermon. The hound digimon extended all four of his legs to support the wall of the hole that was contracting, the digi-core of Millenniummon was just centimeters in front of Dobermon.

'It's working!' said Triceramon

Though none could see the transferring of energy, they could see Dobermon glowing, the white light glowed stronger. After a few ten seconds, Dobermon could feel the he didn't need to use as much force as before to fight the contraction. Millenniummon could probably felt weak too, it couldn't turn its cannons or mouth face its chest and fire at itself, but it could pick Dobermon with its four arms.

Seeing Millenniummon's movement, need not to be a genius of deduction, everyone could tell what Millenniumon intended to do. The ugly thing had four arms, and the team had four digimons left, too. Without further saying, each went to attack an arm of Millenniummon so as to buy time for Dobermon. Much to their surprise, those arms were easier to handle than they expected, probably because Millenniummon's power was drained by Dobermon bit by bit.

One more minutes passed, things started to change, Millenniummon stopped like it was run out of battery or on low battery. Dobermon was still glowing, and his shape started to change, his fore legs changed into something like arms, shoulders like two big doggy heads, more hair grow on his primary head.

'Is he digivolving?' Akio mumbled. All things looked good at first, but Dobermon seemed to get unstable, he was shaking.

'Way too much.' The hound digimon muttered

'Get off now!' Jun shouted

'What's wrong?' asked Kin

'He can't keep going, there are too much energy,' said Jun

'What happen when he got, like overloaded?' asked Akio anxiously

'Any thing can happen.' Said Jun

'Then what are we gonna do?!' Akio shouted

'You don't have to take this alone, my brother.' Said Reiko out of the blue, as Andromon flew up next to Dobermon. 'Let me share some.' He began to glow and change too.

'I would like to digivolve too.' Said Megadramon, 'you wanna come too?' he asked Chessmon, in respond, Chessmon jumped and rode on Megadramon's back as he flew to Dobermon's position.

'Do you want me to go, too?' Triceramon asked Jun, but the blonde shook her head

After some half minutes, all the light faded out, the four digimons were at their new stage. Dobermon is now a Cerberumon X, Chessmon is a QueenChessmon, Megadramon is a Darkdramon and Andromon is a HiAndromon.

'Wow,' Katsumi exclaimed, 'you guys are so awesome.'

* * *

How is it like living in a digivice? DotAgumon would say it's like a cinema, only darkness surrounding him except for the only light source, which is a giant screen. Most of the time, it shows Akio's face, sometime Katsumi's or Dobermon's. Talking to the screen is how he communicates with the outer world.

But now, things are different, the one and only light source gone for a minutes or two, then something weird happened, the other light source came, from the back door of the cinema, and there's a voice calling him, 'It's time to get outta here.'


	9. IX: aftermath

**This is going to be a bit boring...**

* * *

Millenniummon fell down, stayed still on the ground. Its lifeless eyes still opened wide, mouth closed due to gravity, but tongue spilled out of the mouth. It looked completely dead. It seemed that Katsumi's hypothesis was correct, the Millenniummon was some kind of a walking dead. Of course, the fight would be a lot harder had it been alive, had its own will and strategy, as well as a nearly indestructible body.

Still, the battle was over now with most of digimons in Akio's group digivolved. The five kids and their partners finally had some time to rest. As they were still catching up their breath, they discovered something so obvious yet no one ever noticed due to being too focus on battling. The streets were empty, seeing this chance, Akio spoke before everyone could get enough rest.

'We've got to go now,' said the red haired, 'we may have saved our homeland, but we have still broken the law.'

'We're outlaws now.' Just when Reiko finished the sentence, a bunch of cops and their digimons popped up from nowhere and surrounded the kids for the fact that they did carry out an illegal battle. 'A bit update, we were outlaws a few seconds ago.'

_Why can__'__t they be this effective when fighting Millenniummon?_ Thought Akio as he recalled the clip of the officials' digimons got beaten up by a zombie Millenniummon. 'Guys, hands on the air.' Said Akio as he and Reiko did so.

Seeing Akio's action, Cerberumon and Katsumi and Jun followed, Chessmon followed Katsumi, Kin and Triceramon followed Jun, Darkdramon followed Kin. And HiAndromon followed Reiko.

The five kids exchanged looks for a few seconds, but can hardly communicate with just eyes. With no intention to waste more time sucking in this embarrassing situation, Akio whispered, 'Let me talk to them.' He walked toward the one cop that stood in front of all the others, apparently the leader. The red haired boy walked slowly with both of his hands still set on the air, he didn't want his action to be mistaken as a assault and earn a bullet in his head. _This is actually kinda tired._ Even when surrounded, Akio could still keep his thought optimistic, which actually surprised him since he panicked whenever he was called by a teacher. _When __I__ reached him, the first thing I will ask is __definitely__ the permission to lower our hands. _

Akio reached the tall officer, he looked up to speak, 'Um… hallo, my name is Akio Nogami and I'm representing..' The red haired boy suddenly thought of what Kin told him a few hours age, about Jun's old team. 'We're the digi-destined, yep, you can call us the digi-destined if you want a name to represent we ten.' Said Akio as he looked back to the rest nine, then turned back to the official. 'We surrender, now can we lower our arms? It's really tired to keep it up.' said Akio, he was surprised by himself that he actually asked that question, since when did he become that frivolous?

'Told the other to come with us, you kids are spending a night at the police station, and your digimons, too.' Said the officer in a cold voice.

Akio gestured to the nine, signaling them to follow him. As the digi-destined followed the cops, Akio walked to Jun, he considered the girl as mentally unstable, so he must ask, 'I'm gonna need you when talking to the cops, is that o kay for you? Do you need Takano to stay with you or just let Triceramon do the talking?'

The blonde girl shook her head, 'I'll be fine.'

So here they were, at the police station, Akio and Jun volunteered to talk to cops while the rest eight were kept in a large room, which, the atmosphere there was a bit odd. Cause there was too quiet, no body said a word.

Reiko sat down, crossed her legs, placed her hands behind her head and leaned backward, eyes closed, she looked completely comfortable though they were being held like prisoners. HiAndromon sat dwon next to Reiko, stayed still, didn't even make a slight movement, the light from his visor had gone, suggesting that he shuted himself down.

Katsumi and Kin took a seat too, they both leaned forward, placed their arms on their knees and had their fingers crossed, eyes staring at the ground, looked really spineless. While other digimon were mostly standing, or wandering around. This atmosphere stayed for at least five minutes, or more.

Katsumi, the always-lively girl, couldn't stand it anymore, she wanted to talk, but didn't know what to say, despite Reiko's looking completely fine, everyone were clearly worrying. _This may work. _Thought Katsumi as she tried to get Kin talk. 'What's wrong, pretty guy, worrying about your girl friend?'

'What girl friend?' asked Kin, he seemed confused, not until he realized that 'his girlfriend' was referring to Jun, For the first time in his life, the blue haired boy blushed.

'We all know your feeling toward her is more than a crush,' Katsumi continued, and tried to bring others into the topic, 'right? Darkdramon?'

'Yep,' Darkdramon answered, obviously mocking at his partner, 'they even lived together for a while.'

'oh, fishy.' Reiko commented, everyone was surprised that she was awake.

'And Jun seems to rely on Kin a lot.' Said Triceramon

"Hey!' Kin sighed, 'you guys bullying me now?'

'I thought you were the bully,' said Cerberumon, 'I remember you once said that people didn't like Katsumi, I wonder why?'

'Cause she's rich, the poor hates the rich, not thing special.' Said Kin

On the other hand, Akio and Jun explained the situation again and again, yet, no seemed to believe. Finally, Akio couldn't help talking in a more offensive way, 'That thing, that Millenniummon, was taken by us, five kids and their partners, while you cops were no where to be seen, and even you guys fought it, far as I can recall, Millenniummon took less than half a minutes to take down more than fifteen of your people. And more undead digimon like Millenniummon would come to this city, you say you people can protect our home? You can't even fight one, how are you going to fight more?'

'What are you trying to say, Mr. Nogami?' the officer asked

'Let us go to the digital world to stop the cause of this.' Said Akio, 'and before objecting, please give me a better suggestion.'

Akio almost left the officer speechless, but the officer said, 'I understand, but I can't just let you walk away, then no one would follow the laws.'

Akio stood up in a sudden, rubbed his red hair furiously, 'just how stubborn are you!'

Jun pulled Akio's sleeve, signaling him to clam down. 'Sir, we actually helped the police to defend the city, and we didn't cause much damages, can this be the reason to set us free?' she said

After some more minutes, Akio and Jun returned to meet the others. Once entered the room, Akio was impressed be how well the other get along, 'You guys did get along quite well,' he said, then turned to Reiko, 'especially you, really out of my expectation.'

The horsetail girl replied with a smirk, 'Don't you think that you're my only friend.'

Akio's eyes narrowed, he decided to ignore the girl, 'you walk quite well.' He told Cerberumon, who now walk in two legs instead of four.

'Yeah, I don't know how but I just got used to it.' Cerberumon replied, 'So what's the result?'

'Guess what,' said Akio with a bit of smile

'They let us go.' Jun continued, 'we're going to digital world as soon as we can.'

'That is when, exactly?' asked Reiko

'I can't decide for you, in case you need to contact your parents..' said Jun as her volume went lower and lower, but still audible

'That won't be a problem,' said Akio, 'I can call them tonight, they won't object.' He then turned his sight to Katsumi.

'Mine will be fine too.'

'And I'm always free.' Said Reiko

'You know I have no parents.' Said Kin

After seconds of thinking, Jun spoke, 'then, we go tomorrow.'

'Okay' the rest answered. Most of the group then left, leaving Jun, Kin and their partner alone.

Kin put his palm on Jun's shoulder and said something softly, 'You've done well as the leader.'

'I hope so.'

Plutomon carefully type on the keyboard. The program couldn't have the slightest error or it will kill dotAgumon while extracting him from the Aurail G3. After a few more check, the black digimon pulled out three cables from his computer, inserted them to the Aruail G3 and linked it with his computer. One more final check, everything was good to go, he ran the program, now all he need to do was to wait. Stared down at the navy blue digivice, the device that once connected him, his former partner Naoki and dotAgumon together. The three were apart, now two reunited. Plutomon could still remember when dotAgumon first came up to him and Naoki.

_Naoki and Dobermon watched the village burning from a distance, there were no buildings, only fire and fuels, the sky was darkened by the thick smoke while the ground was lightened up by the bright orange and red of the flame. They had do their best to __rescue__ to villagers, yet one third of them were still being left behind, with no hope to escape. Instead of blaming the man and the hound for leaving digimons behind, the villagers were __graceful__ to their help. Still, they felt shame for staying with the villagers, so they walked away while no one noticed, a long way to the pool of rocks, a place in the desert, the fire of the village was still visible and they could saw the blackened shade in the flame, the shade of deadly digimon that attacked the village._

'_Only if I was strong enough to defeat that Millenniummon!__'__ Dobermon shouted, his teeth __crunching__ while his palm hit the ground so hard it cracked._

'_It__'__s not your fault,__'__ said Naoki, __'__you did your best, there__'__s no way you could defeat that damn thing.__'_

'_Only if I was stonger__…'__ Dobermon murmured, __'__if I can get stronger__…'_

_Naoki __couldn't__ do __anything__, his words were nothing, he could only watch Dobermon __blaming__ himself and wait for him to calm down. He was so focus on Dobermon that he __didn't__ notice a __stream__ of data entered his digivice. Then a __mystery__ voice spoke, __'__I heard you want to be strong.__'_

_Both Naoki and Dobermon turned to see who was talking, yet, no result._

'_I__'__m on your arm.__'__ Said the voice_

_Naoki checked both of his arm, nothing __strange__ was on them._

'_Look closer at the screen please.__'__ The voice spoke again_

_This time, Naoki and Dobermon finally saw the origin of the voice, it was a shape of Agumon in the screen of the digivice._

'_Who are you?__'__ asked Naoki_

'_I am__…__ what do I look like now?__'__ said the voice, it surprised the tamer that it __didn't__ know what itself was._

'_You look like an Agumon, made of dots. Like an old school eight bit image.__'__ Said Naoki_

'_Oh,__'__ the voice paused a while to think, __'__I guess you can call me dotAgumon from now on.__'_

'_Whatever, what do you want?__'__ asked Dobermon, in an almost __threatening__ voice_

'_I want you two to go on a __journey__,__'__ said dotAgumon, __'__you can be __benefit__ed too, you get stronger during travel.__'_

_Eventually__, Naoki and Dobermon agreed and started their new journey to power._

Now Plutomon has the power he was hungry for, he killed Millenniummon, used it as experiment material, and used it as his own weapon.


	10. X: Departure

**The kids don't need to fight everyday...**

Day 17

It was only 6:00am, Akio had already woken up, despite only had sleep about four hours, he felt good enough that he need no more sleep. As he opened his eyes, the first thing to be seen was Reiko's face, eyes closed, her hair covered half her face, but the peaceful look could still be seen, and above all, her face was just centimeters away from Akio's.

And yes, she did sleep with Akio last night, as she had said 'Before spending countless night in mother nature, I would like to have one comfortable sleep, I have had enough with that sofa!' Before Akio could react, she had already occupied his bed, only left him two option, 'sleep with me, or at somewhere else.' Without even thinking, Akio picked the first one.

'You can really be lovely sometimes, just sometimes.' Akio murmured as he moved some of her hair aside to reveal her face, still pretty as usual. In all the romance Akio had read, in this kind of scene, the boy would usually lean forward to kiss the girl. Yet, that was not this case.

He didn't dare, or bother to move his sight.

In return, the girl smiled, as if she could hear what Akio had said.

Akio did thought of dating her properly, sometimes, he felt like they were old couples other than brothers.

_Never mind__, _

With this last thought, Akio pushed the bed, rolled himself off it and, of course, hit the ground.

'Aw, that hurt!' he uttered. The pain had made him even more awake than before. 'Come on, Dobermon,' he paused, then corrected himself, ' I mean, Cerberumon, gotta go now.'

Cerberumon woke up and whispered, ' This early?' he sounded sleepy

'Yeah, I want to explore the west more before going to the digital world.' Akio responded while changing to his usual clothing.

'Alright then.' Said Cerberumon as he slowly stood up, though he had enough rest, the tiredness still shook him a bit, but he gained back balance soon enough.

'I thought you'd get use to your new legs.' Said Akio, slightly laughing as he saw Cerberumon's unnatural movement

'Apparently not!' Cerberumon nearly shouted, but thought of the sleeping Reiko, he did his best to lower the volume. 'How about she?' he asked

'She will be on time.' said Akio with a final glance at Reiko, then turned and walk out of his room, slowly walking toward his uncle's room. He stopped in front of the door, gently nodded it twice. He wanted to say one last goodbye before his long journey began. A few seconds later, the door opened, his uncle walked half way out of the dark room, still with half opened sleepy eyes.

Before he could say anything, Akio spoke, 'Just to tell you that I'm about to take off.'

'Okay.' His uncle replied, sounded indifferent, 'I thought your girl friend is coming with you.'

'She'll catch up later.' Said Akio, 'Goodbye.'

'Goodbye.' His uncle replied as he watch Akio walking toward the front door, then stopped and turn back.

'One more thing,' Akio added, 'If that girl is asleep at 7:30am, please wake her up.'

'Okay.' This time, Akio and Cerberumon finally stepped out of the house

'Why 7:30?' asked Cerberumon while they were taking the train to the west, 'we were told to meet at like 9:15, aren't we?'

'Yep,' Akio replied, 'If she does wake up at 7:30, there will be barely enough time for her to get prepared.' He continued, 'When she really wake up with conscious, the time will be around 7:35, then she will take a shower, finish at around 7:50, and then dress up and deal with her hair for roughly half an hour, by the time she finished, that should be around 8:20.'

'Fifteen minutes to the station and five or more minutes to wait.' Said Cerberumon, 'and ride the train for a time that a I don't know.'

Akio didn't reply with words, but the expression of being stunned.

'What? I did count!' said Cerberumon as if Akio had take him as a fool that don't notice what happened around him

'I really didn't think of that.' Said Akio, 'I totally forgot the waiting time!'

'You what?!' Cerberumon nearly shouted it out, but due to being in a train, he had to lower his volume as much as possible, yet still let Akio feel that the werewolf digimon was surprised. 'Then she might be late?' this time, almost whispered

'Yep.' Said Akio slowly, but no word by word, 'there's a great chance of it.' he paused, 'never mind, that's her own problem.' His voice returned to the usual relax, even slightly like he anticipated it to be true. The conversation stopped here, the duo just stared the views that they had never seen through the thick glass of the window.

Countless minutes had passed till they arrived, Akio had a look on his watch, 7:45am. _She should have woken up by now_

The next hour was spent for exploring the street of the west, though they didn't went through the whole west, they decided to return to the station, see if anyone arrived. To Akio's pleasant, Katsumi and Chessmon were there, the girl leaned her back on a wall, arms folded, stared at the direction of the platform, apparently waiting for someone. Without a second of thought, Akio walked toward Katsumi, saying hallo on the way to get her attention. Cerberumon followed.

Katsumi turned to see Akio, seemed surprise to see his appearing, 'You're earlier than I expected.'

'Why would you even thought of that?' asked Akio, 'I'm not always late.'

'Reiko said you wake up late.' Said Katsumi

'She again?' Akio murmured

'Are you waiting for some one else?' asked Cerberumon, 'You seems to be surprised when we came.'

'Indeed,' answered Chessmon, she paused, looked over Akio's shoulder, then spoke again, 'there they are.'

'Who are..' before Akio could finish, something covered his eyes, it was from behind, feeling organic, should be a pair of hands. 'Reiko, is that you?'

There was no answer, that pair of hands lowered, rested on Akio's chest. Then, Akio could feel weight on his left shoulder, so heavy that he had to adjust his step to balance. 'Correct.' Reiko said, right next to his ear. By then, Akio could imagine how Reiko leaning herself on his back.

'Get off me!'

'No~'

Katsumi and Chessmon were watching Akio and Reiko's interaction, couldn't help giggling and laughing, while Cerberumon just sighed, 'They're like this, all the time.'

'They do?'

'Yeah, you'll get use to it.'

'Just get off me will you?' said Akio

'Alright, alright.' With that, Reiko let go of Akio and stood by herself

'I thought you would be late.'

'If I hadn't wake up earlier, I really would have been.' Said Reiko, '7:30, you really think that's a suitable time?'

'Yeah,' Akio replied, while trying not to look at Reiko, 'What're you doing here?'

Instead of answering Akio, Reiko turned to Katsumi, 'Sorry for keep you waiting.'

Katsumi simply shrugged her shoulder, said with a smile, 'I didn't wait for long.'

Akio looked at Katsumi, then turned to Reiko, and back to Katsumi again, 'so, "they" are..'

'Yeah,' said Katsumi, 'we were said to wait here.'

_Yeah, why not_ though Akio

'Let's go, I'm starving.' Said Reiko as she turned and walked, Katsumi and their fellow digimons followed, 'we're gonna have breakfast together, wanna join us?'

'He is joining us,' said Reiko without turning to face the rest, 'and he's paying.'

'Oh, really?' Katsumi exclaimed, 'thanks!'

_Just__ what the hell is going on? _'You know your way?'

'Just follow us, dude.'

Soon Akio realized that he should just walk away when he had the chance, before Reiko forced him to pay. Just by the fancy decoration of the restaurant's interior, he could tell by his instinct that his wallet was about to lose some weight, which can't be easily gain back. Of course he felt pain about it, but at least Katsumi and Chessmon's guilty expression had comforted him a bit, there were someone feeling sympathy for him!

'Are you sure it's a good idea?' asked Katsumi with her eyebrows lowered, 'to have Akio pay for us.'

'Don't worry,' said Reiko with a smile, which Akio could sense the evil hidden in it. 'He deservers that.'

'What?'

'I'll explain it later, why don't we take a seat first?'

As soon as the group settled down, Akio questioned, 'Alright, what's it all about?'

'You leered at me the whole night.' Said Reiko, 'could you come up a better "punishment"?'

'It was you who…' Akio was to object, but was cut off by Katsumi

'Actually, I don't understand a single word from you two.' She said, 'what happened last night?'

'Well,' Reiko began, 'I slept with him last night.'

'It was you who…' Akio defended, but was cut off again.

'You didn't get what I was implying, did you?' said Reiko

'If you didn't want to, you could just say it out!'

'See his attitude?' said Reiko, 'that's why he's paying.'

'Wow, you slept with a hot chick last night.' Said Katsumi, Akio immediately blushed after hearing

He surrendered, dig deeper in this conversation would just embarrass him more. 'Just quit it, hurry order something to eat, we're running out of time.'

'Man, I've never saw you this.. embarrassed.' Said Katsumi with a sigh

The rest of the breakfast was a bur, Akio was just glad that they could finally go to the digital world, though it would be dangerous, at least battling could keep Reiko from talking, or doing anything weird.

Following Katsumi's lead, they arrived the terminal, where Kin, Jun, Darkdramon and Triceramon were already there.

'I hope we're not too late.' Said Akio

'Indeed, you are.' Said Darkdramon with a smirk

'It's all her fault.' Akio turned to look at Reiko, who in return, glared him back

'Can you two just stop it?' said Jun, still in her usual soft voice

'Where're we going, actually?' asked Cerberumon, 'I know we're going to the digital world, but where is the exact spot?'

'The north spot of the main continent,' said Kin, 'we'll have to cross the whole continent.'

'When we arrived, we will be in the city of the south, if anyone forgot to bring anything, we will get thing in stock there, then we'll leave the city and cross the desert in the middle of the continent. When we leave the city, we will have crossed one-third of the continent, but there's still a long way to go.' Jun added, 'any more question?'

'Um, no, we'll just do what you say.' Said Katsumi

The place was familiar, Akio, as well as everyone, had been in here at least once, that was how they got to this city from human world. To Akio, the day he moved to this city was just like yesterday. Despite he had already spent more than a year living here, he felt like he'd just lived here for half a month, those dark days at school, he preferred not to mention it, just let those memories be banished from his brain.

The place was like an airport, but instead of aborting on plane, people walked through the gate, a gigantic glowing purple vortex hanging on the wall.

After a bunch of clumsy procedure, the team finally passed through the gate. The other side of the gate was, more or less, the exact same as the interior of that in Bifrost, just symmetrical.

Following Jun's lead, the team left the terminal, the only thing they saw were a several bus stops, both routes leads to one big bridge, the other side of the bridge was wide, except the one the linked with the bridge, no boundaries of land could be seen. There were buildings, too, most were not so high, but a few towered above the others.

'Welcome to the City.' Said Triceramon

'It doesn't have a name?' Katsumi was the only one to ask, but the others had this question in their head as well.

'It's the only city in digital world,' said Jun, 'so they don't need to name it.'

'Let's get going, shall we?' Reiko suggested, she sounded so cold and serious, the old Reiko that Akio used to know

'Yeah, let's go.' Jun answered, she leaded them team to get on the bus. To do so, most of the humanoid digimoms' size were reduced to the same size as an ordinary man, Terceramon, the only 'beast-shaped' digimon, was turned to the size of a doll as usual, held by Jun. Luckily, Cerberumon wasn't a very big werewolf, or he'll be in great trouble, Akio lost his digivice, he couldn't change Cerberumon's size, thank Yggrdrasill that he was just enough to fit in the bus.

The view Akio saw on the bus was rather disappointing, he could only see the sea when the bus was crossing the bridge, the day's weather was good, too good that the sea was calm, only blueness to be seen. After it crossed the bridge, all he saw was the same city view that so similar to his own town's, just buildings after buildings. _Just what__'__s the difference between the two worlds, thought it would be less developed._ Seeing Akio's reaction, Kin causally joked, 'welcome to 21's century.'

After about an hour of riding, they finally arrived at the train station.

'Before we get on the train,' Jun started, 'please be sure that you've packed all you need, plenty of water and food are necessary, there's no turning back once you stepped into the desert.'

The group checked their backpacks, not once, but twice, and insisted that they had got their backpacks full loaded, yet Jun was still worrying they might be starved to death during the on coming journey, it was Triceramon that finally convinced her.

They spent the rest of the day on the train, not until the next day could they reach the boundary of the City. After all, the City occupied one-third land of the continent.

That night, Jun and Triceramon was the only pair that couldn't sleep, they were still busy discussing the upcoming plan.

'I don't think Blastmon would let us pass through the desert easily.' Jun stated her concern

'We can use some help from Dorugoramon and his fellow Gaossmon.'

'Yeah, you're right. They're the best tribe.'


	11. XI: into the desert

Day 18

They'd make it to the other side of the city, the boundary. The desert was just a ten few meters in front of them. The team and the desert were separated by a wire gate, and two guarding Cyberdramons.

It was such a difference when compare to what they saw the day before, this place was quiet, only occasional sound of wind blowing could be heard. Other than the two Cyberdramons and of course, the team itself, no signs of digimon or human existed. The contrast was too great Akio couldn't quite believe they were in the same city. He didn't say his impression out loud, though everyone could see it on his face. Instead, he asked, 'how do we pass through these guards? They're not gonna just let us walk into the wild, right?'

'Why are there only two guards?' Katsumi asked

'Probably because they don't think there will be some guy dumb enough to get to wild side, that's nearly suicide.' Said Triceramon

'Is it really that bad out there?' asked Chessmon, though being a digimon, she was not born in the digital world, as of Darkdramon and Cerberumon.

'Don't mind that,' said Akio, 'how're we going to get through those guys?'

'Oh, that's simple.' Said Darkdramon, weapon readied

'Wait! You're not gonna..' Kin said, nearly shouted. He knew Drakdramon was always a bit violent, and he afraid his partner would…

'I'm not gonna kill them,' said Drakdramon, sounded annoyed, 'just knock them out. When did you lose you faith in me?' he said ironically

'You're not gonna have all the fun.' Said Cerberumon, stepped a few step to be by Darkdramon's side, 'you save one for me.'

'Okay,' said Darkdramon as both two walked forward, 'but seriously, you think this' fun?'

'No.'

The rest of the group was annoyed by Cerberumon and Darkdramon's action, but they didn't stop them, just stand watch.

'Did you ever think of this?' asked Akio, though not to specific, Kin replied, in another question, 'think of what?'

'When compare ourselves to those two,' Akio said, a sign of laugh then appeared on his face, 'they act more like teenagers then us, or just me.'

'Yeah, kind of.'

The two Cyberdramons were not stupid enough to do nothing when there were two vicious looking digimons approaching them. However, they were not quick enough. As the two Cyberdramons walked up to Darkdramon and Cerberumon, just when they took the first half step, Darkdramon already rushed towards one, knocked him out of conscious, easy as opening a can of jam. While the other one had his attention taken by the first attack for a second, Cerberumon approached him in that second and when Cyberdramon noticed the present of the werewolf digimon, darkness was the only thing followed by, until the time he woke up.

'Alright, now off we go.' Said Cerberumon as he and Darkdramon stepped into the desert, the team followed. Akio turned to see the two Cyberdramons before he finally took his step into the desert. _Poor them._

The desert's ground was of course, full of sand, which's colour was like, normal sand, hard to classify accurately, kinda yellow, kinda brown, even kinda pink. Though full of sand, the ground was surprisingly sturdy, Akio made a little stomp, just a few inches underneath the sand, there was a solid rock ground. Many rocks could be seen on the above the sandy surface too, different sizes of big rocks, half of them were as tall as human height, or even higher. The other half could definitely serve as a decent seat. All the rocks were in the sandy colour too.

Without further saying, the group started walking, toward the north where dotAgumon should be. The walk was rather relaxing at the beginning, there were chatting, about all kind of topic, it was almost like they went on a vacation, but not a dangerous quest.

After an hour, or two, or even three, or whatever, Akio had already lost count on the time, though expected, the boredom brought by the endless became more and more unbearable.

'Why can't I sense any other digimons?' asked Cerberumon, 'I though there would be a lot of them in the Digital world.'

Once again, Jun did the explanation job, 'We're still on the margin of the desert,' she said while taking a look at the map in her digivice, 'they don't like to live near the City, when we got to the deeper, you'll miss this quiet.'

_Still on the margin?_ Thought Akio

As if he had said he thoughts out loud, Reiko replied just when he finished thinking, 'we're walking across two-third of a continent, with our own legs, how far do you expect us to travel in just a few hours?'

'I know.' Akio mumbled, so quiet that it was almost inaudible

So the team kept going on, by the time the sun went down, their chatting voice also went down, finally nothing but silence. Darkness soon fell, though they had their own flash light, it was still barely visible. Plus, they needed rest, so they decided to end the day's walk. Much to everyone's, or just Reiko's surprise, Akio volunteered for the night watch job. Soon everyone fell asleep, only Akio and his partner Cerberumon were awake.

'They'd actually fell asleep, like here's their own bedroom.' Akio muttered, 'how adoptive.'

'Maybe you're the only one who's homesick.' Said Cerberumon

'Talking about home,' Akio started, 'I wonder how're they doing, mom and dad, back in Japan.'

'What's 'Japan'?' Cerberumon interrupted.

Such a foolish question, had it come from the mouth of a ordinary man, Akio would mock him for the rest of his life. But considered that Cerberumon had no knowledge of human world, Akio just let out a small laugh, and then started again. 'Japan is a place in human world, much larger than Bifrost. My original home was in there.' He paused a while, 'But I don't feel like talking about it now.'

'Then what do you want to talk?' asked Cerberumon, 'We can't stay silent the whole night, we'll be bored to death.'

Akio sighed, then thought of the events of the past few days, 'We just defeated Millenniummon two days ago, but it feels like happened two weeks ago.'

'Yeah, it all happened in such a rush. Sometimes I forget dotAgumon had just gone for like four days, feel like lost him for already a month.'

'Really miss him.'

And so they continued this paten of traveling, walk as much as they could during daytime, each one took turn guarding every night, nothing special happened, repeating the same route everyday. They slowly made their progress day by day. A week soon pasted, and things finally started to change.

* * *

Day 25

They did the same thing as they did everyday during the day, but by night fell, Jun called up their attention and said something very important. 'From here, the journey will be much harder, we're about to enter the wild digimons' zone. They may be low in level, but they form tribes, and together they're quite unstoppable, and dangerous.'

_Things finally get interesting_ thought Akio, though he knew that whatever dangers were waiting for him, him was not going to like a single of them.

Jun kept talking, about she going scouting while the others rest, very normally, no one agreed to let her and Triceramon scout alone. They'd eventually came up with the conclusion that Reiko and HiAndromon go with her. Before they went, Jun shared her tracking software with the others, so they could know each other's location. Akio, however, had no digivice, mainning that he had to stick with one of the team all the time, so they wouldn't lose him. _That sucks_

The two girls and their partners soon set off. Akio, Cerberumon, Katsumi, Chessmon, Kin, and Darkdramon, all six of them, sat in silence, yet no one could sleep. To kick the boredom away, they need to have something to chat.

'We're all worrying, right?' as usual, Katsumi started first

'No, I'm not.' Said Akio with his eyes closed, still trying to sleep, while the others: Kin and Chessmon nodded, in respond for Katsumi's question. 'Who's with me?' Akio asked

Darkdramon raised his arm up out of the blue. Akio opened his eyes, and was as shocked as the others to see Darkdramon's respond. 'Glad to have someone agree with me.'

'Why can you act so indifferent?' asked Kin, with rising volume and raised eyebrows, anyone could sense the anger hidden in his voice.

'As long as Reiko's with her, I can guarantee their safety.' Said Akio

'Sounds very confident,' said Katsumi

'Yeah. Takano, I know you care about Jun much more than any of us do, but you've got to trust her.' Akio stopped, a smile on his face, then talk again. 'To be honest, she's a lot tougher than you.'

'The only thing I worry is if Jun can get along with Reiko.' Katsumi muttered

'That's gonna be interesting,' said Akio, 'Reiko dose have a hard time dealing with people that, well, she's not familiar with. But once they're friends, Katsumi, you know how she is.'

'Yeah, lots of fun time.' said Katsumi with a smile, 'no one knows it better than you.'

'I consider her 'naughty'.' Said Akio

* * *

Walking with Reiko was…uncomfortable. She barely said anything to Jun, like her partner, HiAndromon did. Jun couldn't help thinking that, had she done something wrong that made Reiko mad at her, and now she uses silence for revenge?

On and on they went, everything was peaceful, the two girls didn't need to spend much effort on the scouting. As they decided to return, Reiko spotted something, hiding in the shadow, a shad of a digimon that shaped like a dragonhead with two short legs on its side and a short tail on its rear.

'What's that?' pointing at the digimon, Reiko spoke after long silenced

'That's..' Jun mumbled as she leaned forward for a clearer vision, 'hey! It's Gaossmon!'

Reiko made a firm grip on the seemingly excited blonde girl's right shoulder and pulled her back.

'What are you doing?' Jun asked

'We're not sure if it's an enemy.'

'They not!' Jun yelled, obviously angered at what Reiko had said

'Calm down, Jun.' Said Triceramon

'I'm sorry.'

'Those Gaossmons,' Triceramon began

While no one noticed, the Gaossmon stared at the scout team, quietly observing.

'they belong to Dorugoramon's tribe, which helped us a lot before.' Said Triceramon

'Yeah, they're harmless.' Jun added

'If they're,' said Reiko while making a 360 degree turn to see her surroundings. 'then why are they surrounding us? And they look pretty menacing.'

About ten or more Gaossmons formed a circle surrounding the two girls and their digimon partners, they slowly walking toward the humans.

'Hey! It's me,' Jun shouted, in case those Gaossmons didn't recognize her, 'it's Jun, and Monochromon!'

No responds in the first few seconds, the Gaossmons still marching forward. Then they stopped, one of the Gaossmon's mouth glowing orange light.

'Get down!' Reiko yelled as she grabbed Jun by her shoulder, forced both of them to duck down, just quick enough that the fireball fired by Gaossmon flew above their head.

'Lucky my hair didn't catch fire.' Reiko mumbled as she pulled out few cards from her pocket. 'Andromon!'

HiAndromon jumped and landed in fronted of Reiko, posed ready for combat and protecting his partner.

Akio's camp was still silent, they did have a little chat an hour ago, but the silence returned soon after the chat was done.

So quiet, they could hear the wind and their breathing. Already got tired of hearing just these two sounds, the group was glad, but also worried to hear the beeping noise from Katsumi's digivice. The beeping noise meant Katsumi had received a call, the call could only be came from the scout team, and if they had to make an immediate conversation, that couldn't be too good a thing, after all.

'What's it?' the two boys shouted and jerked to Katsumi's side without hiding their anticipation, Akio to her left and Kin to her right.

'It's me,' Reiko's voice came from Katsumi's digivice, yet nothing shown on the screen, 'we're kinda in trouble right now.' Mixed with all kind of sounds of explosion and digimons' roar, her voice could barely be heard.

'Whst's it? Why the screen shows nothing?' Katsumi asked in anxious

'You won't wanna see this.' Reiko joked, trying to lower the tension, but was obviously in vain.

'On our way.' Kin said as he got on his foot

'That's why I'm calling you,' Reiko shouted seriously, 'Stay where you are, they out numbered us….' The connection was then cut off.

Without hesitation, Kin was on his way, as he said, only to be pulled back by Akio.

'You heard what she saud.' The red haired boy said, calmly as if nothing was going to happen

'You want me to leave them? They're most possibly dying out there!'

'Man, you need to learn to trust others.'

* * *

'Atomic Ray, Offence Plug-in A.'

HiAndromon fired two blasts of energy from his palms, they didn't hit right on the Gaossmons, but the shockwave of explosion sent them flew meters away.

More and more Gaossmons came out of nowhere and charged into battle. Just when HiAndromon finished firing another blast, at least two Gaossmons smashed into HiAndromon's back with their head, and then gripped the robotic digimon with their tiny feet. Due to lost of balance, HiAndromon fell forward, just a bit. Soon he regained his balance and stood up straight, he tried to swing the two Gassomons off his back, failed the first time. But with a little bit more effort, he did it, easily. However, the Gaossmons weren't as dumb as they looked, almost on the contrary. A few others grabbed the gap when HiAndromon swung off the two on his back, they smashed him from behind, hit his knees, and this time, HiAndromon did fall to the ground. Some other Gaossmons shot fire at him.

'Defense Plug-in C.' that was all Reiko could do to help HiAndromon, at least lowered some damage.

Triceramon wasn't doing very good as well. Much like HiAndromon's situation, there were always some free Gaossmons available to attack him from different angles.

'Arrrr,' frustrated, Reiko yelled, 'That's it, we surrender!'

As if the Gaossmons could understand her, they stopped attack at once. And then talking to each other in some kind of a weird language, like they were discussing what to do with the scout team.

Jun's heart sank when she heard that language, and she did nothing to hid her emotion.

'What's wrong?' Reiko whispered

One of the Gaossmon walked forward, _that must be the leader. _Reiko thought. The leader Gaossmon swung its head back and forth, while saying something Reiko couldn't understand.

'He told us to go with them.' Triceramon translated

'You know what they're talking?' Reiko muttered as she connected her digivice to Katsumi's again, this time with vision. She showed her index finger at the camera, telling the other side to shut up.

The scout team followed the group of Gaossmons, they walked a long long way, finally reached a giant boulder that had a big hole, or door way on it. They entered, then walked some staircases that led them to the under ground.

The cave was massive. And it was bright, making a great contrast to the night outside. It was lighted up by countless torches on the walls, the fuel source was unknown. Countless more Gaossmons were down here, with countless Gotaumons, all had their jobs to be busy with. Far opposite to the entrance was a wall, a throne set in the middle, and a giant digimon that looked like a ball of crystal with a small head and strong limbs sat on there.

'That's Blastmon.' Triceramon whispered to Reiko

The scout team was brought to the front of Blastmon. They were still surrounded by a bunch of Gaossmons, as well as Gotaumons, who were aimed at the humans, readied to fire if them did anything stupid.

Blastmon spoke, still the unknown language. His voice deep and menacing, echoing in the cave. He tone showed that he seemed to be mocking at the scout team.

'Look after Jun.' Triceramon whispered to Reiko. He then spoke Blastmon's language, loud and firm. Blastmon replied something, and then Triceramon stepped a few step forward, and started talking, still using the unknown language.

Look after Jun. That was what bothers Reiko the most. What was that suppose to mean? Though younger, the blonde had proven that she was capable taking care of herself in the passed week. The white haired girl looked at the blonde, something was happening to her, her body was shaking, uncontrollably. Reiko took a few step to her side, 'You okay?'

No respond. Things were definitely wrong.

Reiko decided to focus on the conversation between Blastmon and Triceramon. Not a single word could she understand, but judging from their reactions, blastmon seemed to have got the upper hand. The always calm Triceramon looked stunned after the last sentence told by Blastmon. The big fat crystal digimon said the sentence slowly, word by word, sounded pure evil. Triceramon glanced back, and Reiko knew something was going to happen, or already happened.

She looked back at Jun. The blonde was barely standing, about to fell off ground at any moment. Reiko held each of her shoulders, to help her stand. At a closer look, Reiko found tears on Jun's face, not knowing what was going on, or what to do, she decided to stay silent.

Blastmon shouted a few words and gestured. The Gaossmons and Gotaumons brought them to another cave, passed through tunnels after tunnels, they arrived at a place that seemed like a cellar, and they were being thrown inside. Gate locked, and a wall of stone separated the girls and their partners.

'How the hell did they got this gate?' Reiko uttered, 'can't you guys just blown a way out?'

'No,' Triceramon answered, 'any impact, the cave will collapse and bury you alive.'

'Lucky that dumb fat ass didn't figure out a way to torture us.' Reiko said, 'So we stay here and wait for rescue, got that? Akio'

She looked back to Jun, she curled up, arms wrapped around the knees, head tugged in, weeping.

There was nothing Reiko could do to help the poor girl.

* * *

Back at the camp, Akio sighed. The girls were safe. All they needed to do was to came up with a plan to rescue them as soon as possible.


	12. XII: rocks and dragons

On the other side of the continent, inside the ice palace, things went pretty smooth as the Duke expected.

He was still sitting on his throne, like he always did, as if he never left there. As usual, he stared at the royal knights statues, planning. His attention was taken away by the sound coming through the corridor few meters in front of him. The sound of footsteps, and a familiar voice that hadn't be heard for quite some time. The voice was moaning weakly.

The first thing appeared at the end of the corridor was, as always, Plutomon. The moaning was not come from the black god man digimon, but from the other digimon he dragged along. That digimon was also in a humanoid shape, much like the other two in the palace.

'You do have a lot of surprises, little guy.' Said Plutomon as the thrown the digimon he was dragging, WarGreymon, to the front of him. WarGreymon now lay between Plutomon and the Duke.

The WarGerymon stood up, facing the white armored digimon known as the Duke.

'So we meet again, at last.' The Duke was the first to spoke, 'though you have taken another form.'

'I see you've got new armor too.' WarGerymon replied, 'Dukemon, or MedievalDukemon now. Name doesn't really matter.'

'You're the one who got yourself tons of names, Omegamon, dotAgumon, WarGreymon.'

WarGreymon looked around, then fixed his sight on a statue like Omegamon, which had its left arm gone. 'It's kinda sick looking at my own remain.' He mumbled, then talking loud again, 'So it had been you, all these times. You killed Jun's parents and robbed the egg. You made Plutomon turned against us and hunted us down one by one. And now get me here, what's you purpose!'

'You know what?' the Duke started, 'ever since you all died, an emptiness took a place in my heart, and it grows stronger and stronger by the time.' he paused, sighed, then continued, 'Don't you get it? I want my brother back, I want you to join me.'

'If I refuse?'

'Then I shell just carry on my plan, and you will miss the only chance to stop me.'

'What?' WarGreymon murmured

'It's too simple to just carry out my plan, no, why don't we have a bet?' the Duke said. WarGreymon could sense the madness in his voice. He didn't answer, just gave a question look.

'You can go back to send a message to your new team of digi-destined, if they can make their way here, then I'll stop my plan. If you failed, you join me.'

'What plan?' WarGreymon shouted, getting more and more confused.

'You knew what I always wanted to do.' Said the Duke with a grim look.

'Bifrost.' WarGreymon continued, 'You still want to destroy it? to bring back that "balance" of the universe?'

The Duke said with a laugh, 'After all, you're still the one who understand me the most, brother.'

'Isn't that civil war enough already!' WarGreymon shouted, he couldn't control the anger running through his body, he felt like attacking the Duke at any moment, 'All thirteen knights, you split them into two sides, and now no one but us live!'

'Yes, we are the only two remaining, for now.' The Duke said, so calm that he sounded creepy and horrible, 'but not for long.'

WarGreymon understood the Duke's plan in a sudden, he looked around the room. All twelve knights, including his past self, looked like statues, but were actually well persevered bodies. 'You're not bringing them back to destroy Bifrost!'

'Of course I am.'

'You don't need to wait for Akio and the others.' WarGreymon shouted, 'I am stopping you, right here, right now!'

He rushed toward the Duke, only to get his way blocked by Plutomon. Without further thinking, WarGreymon waved his claws madly, but Plutomon dodged every single attack. And a simple punch on WarGreymon's stomach was all he needed to take down the mega. He then grabbed WarGreymon by the neck, slammed him against the wall. WarGreymon struggled to get himself off, but failed.

'Think you can stop me by force?' said the Duke

'Hey,' WarGreymon struggled to say, 'if you wanna cut off the connection between the two world, you will need to kill this portal guy..' before he could finish, Plutomon tightened the gripped.

'Mind your words.' Said Plutomon, not loud, but menacing enough.

'You have three weeks.' The Duke said, 'after that, I'll start the attack.' He gave a look to Plutomon, who released WarGreymon.

'You'd better keep your words.' WarGreymon grumbled grimly

'You'd better get going now.' Said the Duke

WarGreymon turned, rushed out of the palace. He needed to be hurry; he was so far away from Akio, even if he flew with full speed non-sleep, it would take at least two days to reach them.

* * *

Day 26

'Who'd actually have a good sleep last night?' Akio asked, he knew no one, even himself, would have a positive answer.

'We all spent the whole night planning the rescue,' said Cerberumon

'Yet nothing has come up.' Darkdramon added, despite his words were true, he'd brought hatred looks for himself

'Yeah, thanks, we know.' Katsumi said, 'If we don't act soon, they're doomed.' she added softly

Surprisingly, Kin had kept silent for nearly the whole night. Obviously too worried that he couldn't think of anything. He sat in his little corner, looking…bad. Usually he would be the hotheaded guy who rushed out without further planning, like what he did last night. Now his odd silence actually scared his teammates. Those who wanted to care him, like Darkdramon, Katsumi and Chessmon, were not dare to get close to him. As for Akio, he would just join Kin randomly at any time, mind him being depressed or not.

However, he did approach the blue haired this time.

'Hey,' he said as he walked by. 'Get up.'

'What?' Kin replied coldly, 'finally come up with your little plan?'

'No.' Akio answered, then turned to face the others, 'can you guys come here too?'

They answered with action as they walked toward the two boys. As they arrived, Akio began, 'Whether we've got a plan or not, we need to go as soon as we can. We can't had them wait for any longer.'

Akio's short speech shocked everyone with his change of attitude. Last night, he stopped Kin. Now he sounded like last night's Kin.

'What's with the sudden change?' Chessmon asked, 'you're not this kind of person.'

'I just said they couldn't wait any longer.' Akio said, sounded annoyed, 'If the only way to get them is to fight our way in, then so be it. We can't waste any time or I'll forget the route to that cave and we'll have no hope of saving them.' Though they only saw the whole capture through the angle of Reiko's right arm last night, it was enough for Akio to memories the route. _She knew __I__could__ do this_

'We can track them.' Katsumi suggested, raised her arm to show Akio the screen of her digivice, where two red dots were shown in s big map.

'Didn't you remember what Triceramon had said last night?' Cerberumon said. He intended to continue, but Darkdramon spoke before he could.

'Unless you want to bury them alive, we will have to get them from inside the cave. Otherwise they would already broke their way out and we don't need to be in this silly discussion.'

'Yeah, that's basically it.' said Cerberumon, 'but dude, you don't need to say in that manner.'

The long silenced Kin finally spoke, 'I say we go with Nogami.'

'Well, if that's the only way.' Katsumi murmured, 'I have no reason to disagree.'

'And as your partner, we'll protect you till the very end.' Said Cerberumon, representing both three of the digimons.

Akio stood up and said, 'then let's not waste any time.'

* * *

Reiko woke up, feeling dizzy. She could hardly believe that she did actually fall asleep last night, despite the poor condition of the ceiling. She leaned on a wall that was relatively smooth, then stared down at the blonde. She was lying on the sandy floor, still asleep. Her peaceful sleeping look was so cute that even as a girl, Reiko had a little bit, just a tiny bit, attracted by Jun. _That Kin is a lucky guy_

Reiko soon found out that Triceramon was awake too. Though separated by a wall, she crawled toward Triceramon's direction, and whispered. 'What did that Blastmon said last night? What's the whole thing?'

'I don't know if I should say it.' Triceramon replied

Though Triceramon could see her, Reiko turned to look at Jun, then back to the wall again, 'If it's because of Jun, I can assure that she's still sleeping.'

Triceramon sighed; Reiko could hear it even through a wall. 'Okay.' He said. Then came a long pause. Reiko could only assume that Triceramon was taking in a deep breath while composing all the stuffs. The triceratops digimon finally spoke, 'A long time ago, when we were still on the old journey, we reached this desert once, and found out two tribes that compete with each other, mainly for land and food. One is Blastmon and his fellow Gotsumons.'

'The one that caught us?' Reiko asked

'Yes. They have their own language, and their leader, Blastmon, is an extremely aggressive digimon. Though he is quite weak at thinking, his pure force helped him in a lot of fights, and helped him gain control over the countless Gotsumons, too.'

'To suppress them?'

'No, those Gotsumons were mainly attracted by his pure power.'

'So.' Reiko said, still processing all the information she had just heard, but already couldn't wait to ask, 'what about the other tribe?'

'They were Dorugoramon and his fellow Gaossmons.' He paused, if as expected Reiko's next question.

'Gaossmons? Aren't them the one who attacked us? Why would you say they compete with Blastmon?'

'Things changed.'

Not from Triceramon, not from Reiko, and of course not from HiAndromon. Reiko turned to see the owner familiar voice. Jun was awaked. 'You're so sneaky.' Reiko uttered in a awkward face, thankfully no one could heard her.

'Sorry.' Reiko apologized to Jun, 'we can stop on this topic if you don't want to.'

'It's Okay.' The blonde said in her usual soft voice. 'I'll explain the rest.'

She took in a deep breath, prepared herself, then began, 'Dorugoramon was considered as the good guy. They used to give us lots of help.'

'That's why you were so glad when you saw the Gaossmon?'

'Um.' Jun nodded, 'but then, I didn't know things changed so much in this two years.'

'They joined force? To become one big bad guy?'

'Worse.' Jun stared down the floor, her voice obviously lowered since then, 'He lost. Dorigoramon lost to Blastmon.'

Silence came by, Reiko thought for a while, then spoke again, 'so, when we got out of here, we could go find Dorugoramon for help?'

'That's impossible.' Said Triceramon, 'Dorugoramon was…'

'Dead.' Jun finished, not hiding any sadness in her voice

'That's what Blastmon told you?' Reiko asked, surprised even herself that she did show no sympathy, 'He can lie on that, you know.'

No one said a word, if as they didn't think of that possibility.

'Well, he can.' Reiko insisted

'Maybe, but anyway, we have to figure a way out here.' Said Jun

'Don't worry, helps are on their way.' Said Reiko, _only if they could find a way pass through the Gaossmons. _She added to herself.

Feeling dizzy, she leaned back on the wall, put a hand on her forehead and closed her eyes, sighed.

'You okay?' Jun leaned toward the older girl and asked

'Just a bit of headache.'

'Maybe you've caught a cold.' Said Jun as she took off her jacket and offered it to Reiko, 'take it.'

'Thanks.' Reiko said as she gladly accepted the jacket.

* * *

Akio's group had reached the spot where, they believed was the place that the capture of the scout team was taken place. They merely made this conclusion judging by the look of the surrounding rocks, full of scratches that looked like battle damage. There were no footprints, as the wind had already blown them all away.

It was mid afternoon, probably the hottest hour in the day. Even the digimons had a stronger resistance to tough environments, they were having a hard time withstanding the hotness as well, and the kids were nearly defeated by the weather, if not now, they will be soon. They decided to take a rest. Katsumi found an area shadowed by a big boulder, she leaded the group there. The three human sat on the shadowed area, but didn't lean on the rock, as it felt like a pre heated fry pan. Akio even joked that they could use the heat on the rock to cook an egg.

The three digimos hidden in the shadow too, though they did set down, there were no enough spaces of all of them.

'The heat, it's killing me.' Said Drakdramon, though exaggerated, the rest of the digimons agreed that the weather was tough.

'Those survived in this desert must be strong, no doubt.' Said Cerberumon

Katsumi finished drinking her few drops of water, then spoke, 'Even you guys are having a hard time?'

'Must admit that the condition is worse than I expected.' Said Chessmon. She then looked down to her partner who was holding a nearly empty bottle, 'save some water for later days.'

Katsumi pointed her thumb at her backpack, 'I've still got a few bottles.'

'Are you thirsty?' Akio asked the digimons

'Kinda.' Cerberumon answered, 'but not desperately need water.'

They stayed for a few more minutes, and then started walking again. It was odd that they did find no Gaossmons or Gotsumons. 'Maybe they get lazy under the strong sun.' Akio suggested.

'Just makes our job easier.' Kin said, 'how far?'

'I think we've walked half the way.' Said Akio, 'getting impatient?'

'Was that even a question?' said Darkdramon, 'we all know him.'

They walked a few more kilometers ahead.

When they seemed to have lowered their alert, a few Gaossmons and Gotsumons approached them, it wouldn't take them long to circle Akio's group, like what they did to Reiko and Jun.

They reminded themselves not to repeat the two girls' mistake, but still did what the two girls had done. They stood a circle, each one facing outward as the rocks and dragon digimons marched toward them. Surly they did made themselves easier to be surrounded.

Akio watched as the tribe's digimons slowly approaching them. He discovered one thing, they didn't walk slowly to made them feel menacing; they walked slowly because they were tired. He could see it through their lifeless eyes.

With a bit of quick thinking, he came up with a plan, and he decided to carry it out without noticing the others. He must act while their future captors were still a ten few meters away from them. Reaching the right hand to his backpack, took a bottle out, a bottle that filled with water. Pretending to be completely calm and unaffected by the threat from the Gotsumos and Gaossmons, he opened the bottle, and took a few drink of water.

'We're about to get our ass kicked and you still have the mood to drink?' Cerberumon asked madly.

'Just watch.' Akio answered, with a little shaking in his voice as he didn't sure that his plan would actually work or not. 'And mind you language.'

A sigh was all Cerberumon did to reply his partner's little joke. He watched as Akio closed the bottle tight after taken just a few drops of water. He brought the bottle up high, and waved it, likely boasting it to their surrounding digimons.

'You guys want some?' he shouted.

Amazingly the offer did appeal to the Gotsumons and Gaossmons as they leaned a bit forward.

'There you go!' the red haired boy thrown the bottle at a random direction. A Gaossmon caught it.

Apparently everyone wanted more but Akio put his hands up high on the air, 'That's all I've got!'

Even more amazingly, almost unrealistically, they seemed to believe. And as they believed, quarrel started. A Gotsumon took the bottle Gaossmon and said something that sounded insulting. As a result, a few more Gaossmons rounded that Gotsumon. And soon few more Gotsumon gathered there, then more and more gathered. The quarrel soon grown to a much larger scale fight.

'You're genius.' Katsumi murmured

'I know.' Akio answered and couldn't hid his smile

'Gotta go now!' Kin said, no one argued.

With Akio's unbelievably accurate memory, they reached the entrance.

'Stop for a while.' Chessmon said, 'now we really need a plan.'

Akio took a breath and said, 'Me, Cerberumon, Katsumi and you would do the fighting while Takano and Darkdramon go find the girls, good enough?'

'No,' Kin said, 'you don't have the digivice, I have. I can do more help.'

Akio looked at Jun, then back at Kin, 'we have better teamwork, beside, Jun misses you.'

Without a chance to let Kin object, Akio walked down the stairs to the cave.

'Alright.'

No guards on the staircases, whoever leaded the tribe surely knew how to surprise the intruders. _Again, just makes my job easier._ Though keep forcing himself to think in an optimistic way, Akio couldn't help thinking that they were entering a trap.

But when they reached the main hall, and saw the shocked expressions on nearly every digimons' faces, they knew what that meant. It turned out that it was merely Blastmon's own careless; there were no traps, no one was waiting for them.

There was no room for hesitation, Akio pointed at one of entrance, and yelled to Kin, 'There! Get there! Then turn left, and right and two more left!'

'Left, right, left, left?' Kin yelled back for confirm

'Yeah! Left right left left, now go!'

Rode on Darkdramon's back, they flew into the corridor before a Gotsumon or Gaossmon could stop them.

Part of Gotsumons and Gaossmons chased Kin while the rest stayed and fought. Blastmon still lazily sitting, spilling some words that none could understand out.

'Feel familiar?' Akio asked, 'it reminds me the battle with Jack.'

'Yeah,' Katsumi answered, 'just fewer in numbers back then.'

'Can't you two stop talking and get on with it?' Cerberumon shouted as he kicked a Gotsumon out of his way.

'Alright.' Katsumi said as she pulled cards out of her front pocket.

'Grand Cricket.'

Chessmon waved her hammer, swung herself a 360_۫ _turning and smashed the digimons that got in her way.

More and more joined the fight, and the two digimons could barely hold the line.

* * *

**15/2 Late Valentine's day update**

**Valentine's day special: ****gipakll. /art / Valentine-special-514049327?ga_submit_new=10%253A1423973775**

**Happy Valentine's day to you all!**


	13. XIII: the rescue goes on

Darkdramon was flying at his full speed. After a few minutes of flying, they reached the first turning.

'Left.' Kin instructed

Darkdramon did as he was told to. As they flew, Kin could hear the sound of battle from the main hall coming through the corridor. He wondered if they were doing fine, or need his help. He couldn't turn back, no until he freed the girls.

Sounds of digimons stomping echoed in the corridor and was getting louder and louder. Kin looked back while Darkdramon still jetting forward, not having spare time to look back. The blue haired boy spotted the group mixed of Gaossmons and Gotsumons was getting closer. They were way too fast, even able to keep up with Darkdramon's speed. Kin had no idea how they did it, but he didn't bother to think of it, he knew the only thing they needed to do: to lose their chaser. He pulled a card out.

'Ready to speed up?'

'Always.' Darkdramon answered with his usual smirk

'Speed Plug-in B'

With the plug-in activated, Darkdramon speeded up and nearly got rid of their chaser, just nearly. Soon as the Gaossmons spotted Darkdramon's speeding up, they shot fireballs. Not hard for Darkdramon to dodge usually, yet, in the narrow corridor, there was not enough room for movement. Plus the fact that he had just speeded up, he flew aside, dodged the fireballs, but lost his own control. Darkdramon smashed into the wall and Kin fell off his back. The boy didn't have an easy landing; the inertia caused him to roll further forward. The rocks and sand on the ground starched his skin, bringing him a pain that he'd never experienced. Yet, he was lucky that he had no limbs broken.

Darkdramon stabbed his lance on the ground and pushed himself to his feet. He didn't turn to look at Kin, just yelled at his partner, told him to go on alone while he held the attackers. Though not willing to leave his partner behind, the blue haired boy knew that was the best way. He had to go on or the Gaossmons and Gotsumons would capture them all. He leaned on the wall left to him, struggling to get up while baring all the pain. Despite all the sand in his hand, he covered one major wound on his right arm by the left hand. Feeling slightly better than left it uncovered. He tried as hard as he could to bring up his feet, walked step by step while still leaning on the wall. He walked slowly at first, but after getting used to the heat that came from his wounds and ran through his body, he speeded up a little.

And he could still heard digimons crying, probably because they got their ass kicked by Darkdramon. He could only hope that. After all, they were partners; he needed to have faith in him.

* * *

The girls covered their heads as sand fell off from the ceiling; it was not the first time since the last five minutes.

Jun lied on the floor, had her eyes closed so as to get a better sense. 'Yet again.' she murmured. 'It's very weak, but I can feel it. This place's shaking.'

'Yeah, and I can guest it.' said Reiko. It was true that sounds of metal crunching against rocks, fire burning, digimons screaming, all kind of noises related to battle echoed through the corridor and came in their room. It would take a complete fool to not realize that there was something going on out there, and that would mostly be the rest of the digi-destineds' arrival.

As such, the Gotsumon that guarded them was either a deaf fool or he did his job way too well. Despite the circumstances, he stood upright, still staring at his prisoners, though his stare didn't serve much purpose.

'Was it just me or did you all hear it?' asked Reiko

'Heard what?' Jun replied. She closed her eyes so she could be more focused on listening. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again, 'There's nothing.'

'Exactly.' Said Reiko, 'All those fighting sounds, they faded away.'

A very, very bad though broke into Jun's mind, 'Would they…'

As if already considered Jun's prediction, Reiko cut off Jun's sentence, 'No, they won't get killed, as long as Akio's there.'

Clearly Jun wasn't convinced by Reiko, may be too many comforts like this were being told to the younger girl who had much more experience than the older Reiko. Though Reiko wasn't comforting the younger girl. She was telling the truth.

'Hey!' Reiko yelled at Jun, 'I meant it, they're not dead! Why do you always think in the bad way?'

Yelling seemed to work better, as Jun stopped staring at the ground and looked up to Reiko, 'Sorry.'

'You don't need to.' Said Reiko. Then, once again, she fixed her sight at the guarding Gotsumon. The key was just hanging on the string on his waist. Only if it could somehow magically fly to them. 'I hope they can find us before this place's collapsed.'

* * *

They didn't share a telepathy link. They didn't say a word to each other, but they share the same thought. Akio and Katsumi were standing right behind their digimon partners, slowly stepping back, toward the staircase that led them in.

The four of them knew so well that they didn't stand a chance if they kept fighting in the cave, not indicating that the situation would get better when they got up to the open space of the desert. At least when they got out, their attacker would only come from one way, the only entrance which was also the only exit. Better then got surrounded, they did just get rid if that situation a minutes ago. Now that their attackers were pretty much lined up, they needed to lead them out of the cave.

A Gaossmon jumped toward Cerberumon and was sent fly away by the hit of the werewolf digimon's claws. Cerberumon took a step back while blocking two more fireballs with his claws. He had no idea what made up the claws on his arm armors, but they worked so well that they didn't only serve as a set of offensive weapons, but also great shield.

Two more Gaossmons jumped toward him and he swung his claws again, stroke them aside, one by his left arm and the other by his right. He almost missed the left one, which would cause serious trouble. If the attackers were able to pass through the two human allied digimons, then their human partners were doomed, no doubt at all.

Cerberumon kept slashing and kicking and punching every thing digimons that got into his way as he kept backing, they almost reached the stair.

Chessmon, holding the very bottom part of her hammer's handle, was having a hard time dealing with those Gotsumons and Gaossmons. Her hammer was too heavy that she couldn't attack continuously, there were several times that a Gaossmon or Gotsumon nearly passed the line to attack the humans, only to be sent fly away by Cerberumon. 'I can't keep going on like this.' She said, 'I need other means of attack.'

Katsumi quickly flipped through her cards, and took one out.

'Pendulum blades'

Chessmon's hammer decomposed into glowing tiny bits of data and flew to her arms. They warped around Chessmon's arms and composed again, formed new fore arm armors with blades on its side, exactly like BlackWarGrowlmon's.

With the lighter weapons, Chessmon performed much better, and soon the group made it to the stair.

Much like before, they attacked every thing that got into their way while walking up stairs. Soon as they made it to the higher level and got some distant between them and the chasing Gotsumons and Gaossmons, they stopped for a while, and Akio finally spoke again.

'You know what's the advantage when you have the high ground?' he said as he catching his breath

'What?' Cerberumon asked

Katsumi giggled; she could get what Akio meant. 'Yeah, do it.'

'Do what?' Cerberumon asked still confused

Another wave pf mixed Gaossmons and Gotsumons charged toward the group.

'Just knock off those at the front.' Akio said. He wanted to shout, but too tired to do so.

Cerberumon and Chessmon did as they were told to. As the front line of the charging attackers got hit and fell back, they dropped on those behind them, and they fell together, like landslide. Soon the whole petrol fell back to the cave.

'Yeah~!' though tired, Akio and Katsumi had to scream it.

'Come on, let's go.' Chessmon said, pointing at the exit, 'it will take them some time, but they will eventually caught up.'

'Got it.' the two humans replied and the group continued their way to the exit.

* * *

Kin could see it, he could see the prisoner room just meters from him. His heart raced, he wanted to get there as fast as he could, the sooner he got to see Jun again, the better. But instead of charging forward, he stopped. His back leaned on the wall as he trying to catch up with his breath. All his injuries still burn him, but the heat in his wounds were not as fierce as before. To sum up, he could still move quite normally.

_Calm down._ He told himself, _stay low, stay stealth._ Though he told himself so, it was torturing that he was so close and yet so far to his goal. _Be __patient__, you can do it._

Once he had got enough rest, he stood up straight, though still leaned a bit to his left. He was injured, after all.

Slowly he made he step, he had to made it slow so no one, not even himself, could hear his footsteps. Left, right, then left. His heart bumped faster each time he took a step, and his breathing was more and more noticeable. He stopped again, adjusted his own breath. _Calm down_. He reminded himself again.

Kin started walking again, finally he entered the room, and when he did, he stood right behind the guarding Gotsumon. Thank goodness he didn't notice the human kid. Kin took a quick scan at the Gotsumon and found the position of the key, which he supposed was used to unlock the cage that kept his friends. Without a bit of hesitation, he grabbed the key and successfully pulled it from the Gotsumon, only to gain him Gotsumon's attention, and then a punch. It hit him right in his chest and sent him a few steps back. The Gotsumon pursuits. It grabbed the boy by his shirt and slammed him to the metal gate that separated him from Jun and that hurt so much. Kin wished that he was instead being slammed to a flat wall; the metal bars and the gaps between them were killing him. He tried to kick the Gotsumon by his knee, resulting hurting his own knee even more. That was what would happen when you kick a rock.

Kin yelled in pain, and was being thrown to ground. He landed with his stomach. When he turned to face the Gotsumon, he found that the Gotsumon opened its mouth, fired a rock toward his forehead. He dodged. He would have died had that rock hit its target. The Gotsumon charged again, grabbed the boy by his shirt again. Obviously wanted to Kin at close range. Kin did all he could but the grim lock of Gotsumon was still. Now he could hear Jun screaming for him, maybe that would be the last things he would ever heard.

That wasn't too bad at all, at least he could hear Jun's voice again, though it was not what he wanted her to say.

Darkdramon arrived just in time to knock Gotsumon away. Kin fell on the ground; he didn't have enough strength to stand. 'What took you so long?' he whispered to his partner.

'Those little guys're a bit more annoying than I expected.' Darkdramon answered, offered Kin a hand to pull him up to his feet.

'Thanks.' Said Kin as he unlocked the gate.

'No thanks, we're partners.' Darkdramon whispered

Soon as the prisoners got out, Jun pulled Kin into a hug. The boy's head rested on Jun's shoulder so he couldn't see the girl's expression. Her face was mixed with tears and smile, too joyful that none of them said anything. She pulled Kin back after some time, and the blue haired boy who was covered in thin layer of dried blood smiled. They looked at each other but couldn't think of a thing to say, just smiling, that's all. The enjoyable moment of reunion cleared their mind, made them forget their situation, until Reiko's words brought them back to reality.

'Hey, you two.' She gathered their attention, 'No time for kissing, we still have to help the others.'

Just when she finished, the whole place shook, and Kin fell off again. The structure of the cave was definitely weakened by the shaking, though the room was still a room. More sands fell off from the ceiling, indicating that the place would soon collapse.

'We have to go, now!' Reiko ordered. Jun helped get the weak Kin on Triceramon's back and they were ready to go.

'Just like when I first met you.' Said Kin

'Yeah, just like that time.' Jun replied as they rushed toward to exit. Another shaking took place and this time it was much more fierce than the last one. The group ran along the corridor as chunks of rocks fell behind them. Following Darkdramon's lead, they successfully made it to the main hall and found no one, not even Blastmon.

The shaking kind of stopped and the main hall looked safe to stay. There they took a brake.

The place looked awful, it was always an ugly cave but now it was even more disgusting. There were cracks and holes through out the wall. Sunlight came in the cave while the torches were all off. Dead silent.

Until Reiko received a call from Katsumi, the beeping notification noise broke the silence.

'You guys all right?' Reiko and Katsumi almost asked at the same time

'Yeah.' Reiko answered, 'how about you?'

'Not that well.' Katsumi's voice could barely be heard due to all the background noise, nothing good could be happing.

'You guys need to get outta the cave now!' Katsumi shouted, this time more audible.

As they were told to, the group ran toward the staircase that brought them down here. They ran up the stairs as fast as they could, hoping the group wouldn't be facing much trouble.

* * *

A few minutes ago, things went pretty well. Cerberumon and Chessmon kicked the Gotsumons and Gaossmons back to their cave. They came out to the surface with the still overly bright sunlight that they did really enjoy at that moment. They prefer being scorched by the sunlight to staying in the dim and dangerous cave. Akio and Katsumi put their hands on the knees, heavily sucking in fresh air. They didn't noticed unit then that the underground was lack of oxygen. They could only hope that the poor air down there wouldn't kill the rest of the digi-destined.

Then things became odd. Their chasers should be arrived by then. They all guarded the entrance cave since there should be the only place they could use as an exit. The other possibility was that they gave up chasing Akio's group and turned for Kin. If they did so, all Akio and Katsumi's work for luring the army out of the cave would be in vain.

Luckily, or unfortunately, their plan worked, just not exactly as they expected. A few tens meter from the entrance, behind the group, an enormous object rose from the ground. The digi-destined turned to see the thing that caused the earthquake. The earth kept shaking as the thing rose higher and higher. Sands fell from the objects head like waterfall, and the earthquake grown stronger as the thing made more process.

Finally the earthquake stopped and the thing was completely standing on the ground. The sands soon all fell off and revealed the appearance of the thing. A digimon whose size was twice as large as Cerberumon, with strong, almost chubby limbs and body. Tidy crystals wrapped around its fat stomach and irregular shapes of crystals extended from its back. Its armor full of rare stones. It was Blastmon.

The ground shook again; dust came from all around the digi-destined. They knew what that meant. The Gotsumos and Gaossmons surrounded them again while making their entrance like Blastmon did.

Then Akio thought of the rest of his team, remembered Triceramon mentioned how fragile their prison was. He wished his friends would get their selves buried, and he wanted to confirm it.

'Katsumi?' he called out, ignored how their enemies were surrounding them

'Yeah?' the always helpful girl replied, 'you'd better keep it short.'

'Give Reiko a call, I wanna know how they're doing.'

'Fine.' the girl tapped on her digivice as the enemies charged toward them

'Behind us!' Cerberumon and Chessmon shouted as they stepped outward, providing their partners better protection.

The fight scene back when they were in the cave happened all over again. Cerberumon and Chessmon had to do whatever it took to keep the enemies from the humans while Katsumi finally successfully connected to Reiko's digivice. 'You guys all right?' she and Reiko almost asked at the same time.

Then she told the other about the earthquakes, and told them to get out of the cave and quickly finished the talk.

Blastmon charged into battle for the first time. He didn't need to do much, without using any special moves, just a little punch and he sent Cerberumon flew away, into the crowds of the Gotsumons and let them took care of the ultimate. Seeing Cerberumon's fail, Chessmon paid more attention to the big boss. Blastmon waved his arms as Chessmon ducked down, just right when Blastmon's fist flew right across the open space above Chessmon's head. Chessmon tried to slash Blastmon but was in vain, her blades couldn't even cut in Blastmon's body. Hitting Blastmon was like hitting a boulder, just did more damage to the attacker.

'Chessmon, your left!' Katsumi shouted as another Gaossmon to Chessmon's left fired. Chessmon blocked the attack with her blades. And then the strong wind of dust blew from her behind; it announced her Blastmon was coming from behind. She turned and saw a gigantic arm waved to her direction, with no time to dodge, Chessmon held her blades in front of her to shield herself, though she knew her act was useless. The strong arm drove her backward with her blades braking into pieces. As she landed, she could hear Katsumi screaming her name, terrified.

But it turned out that the heated blades did a bit of damage to Blastmon.

Before Chessmon could get up, waves of Gotsumons and Gaossmons ran into her, got themselves all over her body to kept Chessmon stayed down.

The same thing was going on with Cerberumon.

Without the digimons' protection, Akio and Katsumi were defenseless. The Gaossmons and Gotsumons surrounded them, but they kept distance from the humans. They didn't charge, didn't fire. Those stood in front of the humans cleared a path for Blastmon. The earth shook with each step Blastmon had taken. The two humans had no idea what was going to happen to them, and they will probably never know, as they couldn't understand a single word came from Blastmon's mouth. However, by Blastmon's kind of mocking tone, Akio could guess that no good was going to happen. If Blastmon just took out his giant hand and squeezed them, they would have no chance to escape. Or he could simply step on them, just the same effect.

'I'd expect to go back alive.' Akio said, 'should have known the dangers out here.'

'Me too.' Said Katsumi

Blastmon stepped forward, as if he really was going to squeeze them.

Then came a storm, it blew all the sand and dust into the air. It was like when a helicopter landed by. Akio felt familiar, he had seen it before, back when he was confronting with Jun at the bay, the day dotAgumon was taken away. The same kind of storm came when Plutomon opened a portal. He wanted to see what was coming this time, but he didn't dare to expose his eyes to the sands. The red haired boy shielded his eyes with both of his eyes, sneak through the gap between the two arms to get a better look.

Through the blur of yellow brown, he could see another enormous digimon flew toward Blastmon. The storm got stronger as the digimon flew by. It looked like a humanoid dragon, purple and silver mechanic parts covered all over its body while its wings was made up of bright red and black feather, making a great contrast from its machinery front. It slammed into Blastmon and they rolled away from Akio and Katsumi.

Without wasting a second to think, Akio turned toward the direction the dragon digimon came from and saw the same same purple glowing portal, and the menacingly slim black digimon. That was Plutomon.

The other group made their way up to the surface just in time. Like Akio and Katsumi, they turned their attention to the newly arrived dragon digimon. By then, the dragon digimon had already heavily damaged Blastmon.

That was another shock to Jun. She knew the look of that dragon digimon all too well, even now its armory had changed, she could tell, that was Dorugoramon. But the Dorugoramon she used to know would never be violent.

Another kick and Blastmon fell down, didn't seem to bother getting up, may be he was desperate, or had some other plan. Before making the final strike, Dorugoramon roared, his voice sharp, high, almost irritated. It was full of grieve, and mixed with mechanical noises.

* * *

**Bit of interesting thing:**

**I found that when compare to other chapters, chapter ten has an outstanding number of views, I wonder why**


	14. XIV: return as enemy

**So, guess you guys can all get that the digimon is DexDorugoramon. Yet, my characters don't know that. Therefore due to different angles, I will some time call him DexDorugoramon, some time Dorugoramon. It's a bit confusing, but you know he's the same guy.**

* * *

The whole place dropped dead silence after DexDorugoramon's roaring. Everyone stopped, stunned. So stunned that Cerberumon didn't even realize that he had the chance to escape the crazily attacking Gotsumons. All of the attentions were turned to DexDorugoramon, who now raised his razor clawed right hand, seemingly readied to stick it directly into Blastmon's stomach and reap the gem digimon's digi-core out.

There was no time left to be wasted. Jun made up her mind quick and pulled out a card, she had to stop her old friend from doing whatever he was about to do. 'Aimed?' she asked Triceramon.

'Any time.' her partner replied

'Blaze Blast.'

Triceramon's breathing fire broke the silence and brought everyone back to the reality. Cerberumon was one of those who reacted fast. He sprang up to the feet, and then dashed toward Akio fast as he could, kept swinging the claws to get things out of the way. Not later he reached his partner, who then let out a sigh of relief. Chessmon approached the moments later.

The fireball hit right at DexDorugoramon's arm. As expected, he turned toward the direction where the fireball came, toward Jun and Triceramon. Everyone watched, carious at the event that was about to happen. Kin jumped off Triceramon's back but didn't make a landing. He fell onto the ground and hardly got up. 'You can't go to battle with me on your back.' He said to Triceramon and Jun as well, forcing a smile out of his screw-upped face. 'Don't worry about me, go now.'

Jun nodded and rode on Triceramon's back, they went to the direction of DexDorugoramon. The dragon digimon, on the other hand, seemed to have calmed down a bit, was walking toward the girl and her triceratops, making loud but smooth noise of metal panels shifting on his way.

When they intercepted, DexDorugoramon seemed to have lost his temper again as he stepped his right foot back for support while raising the right arm, making a ready-to-claw pose.

'Stop! It's me!' Jun shouted, 'It's Jun!'

DexDorugoramon seemed to recognize the blonde girl as he leaned a bit backward, looked like withdrawing his attack from the other's eyes. Jun sighed.

'Glad you remember me.' Jun whispered

DexDorugoramon lowered his arm, which was a surprise to the others.

'Interesting.' Plutomon murmured as he observed, warping his arms while standing far from the core of the battlefield.

Another loud noise broke through the silence as Blastmon stroke DexDorugora from behind. Not preparing the sudden assault, DexDorugoramon fell on his knees and collapsed right in front of Jun. The long quieted Gotsumons, seeing their leader's striking back, started to rumble again, charging different ways to swarm the two groups of humans, while leaving DexDorugoramon to be their leader's prey. The Gaossmons, however, didn't respond to Blastmon.

The swarm was even fiercer than before, held nothing back, charging toward the humans at full speed with hundreds of body moving at the same time. If their pervious attack was like the particle's formation of liquid, the current attack was like the particle's formation of solid, nothing could brake them apart; it was just a matter of time when they would finally broke through the human-partnered digimons' defense.

DexDorugoramon pushed himself up, completely ignored Jun's buzz like saying. No one need to uncover his mask to see the fire burning in his eyes, the rage could easily be felt, as if there was some sort of aura of rage surrounding the Dex.

The ground was shook by Blastmon's heavy footsteps again, which directly noticed his foe that he was coming from behind, about to slam DexDorugoramon back on the ground before he could even stood up. The heavily damaged gem digimon must had been too over confident in himself, or still hadn't leant anything from countless battles that he'd been through, otherwise he wouldn't make such a elementary mistake. DexDorugoramon may be modified both physically and mentally, but he retained his experiences as a warrior, and he knew how to make use of every inches of his body as a weapon. He kicked to his left, making a high speed turning that his tail, which was armed with a great big metal ball, swung and hit Blastmon, knocking him off his balance.

'Down!' Triceramon yelled as he ran and covered Jun under his stomach, he himself ducked down as well, but wasn't quick enough that the tail hit the spicks on his back. Though not directly slammed into Triceramon's body, the force sent him flew away. He rolled a few turns when hit the ground, finally stopped and lied on the ground; the spicks on his back were of course, broken.

'Triceramon!' Jun yelled and ran toward her best friend

DexDorugoramon stopped spinning. He stood still, looking down at Blastmon. There were sands floating around the Dex as his spinning waved them up. In the thin fog of yellowish, DexDorugoramon raised up his head, roared to the sky. The sound was still sharp and irritating, but louder than all the roarings he had made. It echoed even at the open space of the desert. He didn't speak human, but one need not translation to understand the message it carried. It was a battle cry, also a summon to gather DexDorugoramon's former followers, the Gaossmons together.

The Gaossmons were back in action soon after the battle cry faded. Their synchronized roars showed no sign that they were lost earlier. Formation began to formed and groups and groups of Gaossmons crashed themselves into the Gotsumons, the two sides' formations fell apart soon as they collided, there was only mixture of blue and brown gray, the colours bouncing frequently. The whole thing was a mess up and chaos.

'Did they just saved us?' Cerberumon said in exhaustion

'I say that was just between them,' said Akio, still stunned by the messed up fighting of the dragons and rocks, 'they just saved us by the way.' He then turned to Plutomon's direction while the tribes' digimons were too busythey ignored the digi-destined. 'I say we seize this chance, that skinny Hades might bring us some clues of dotty.'

His companions nodded and followed Akio.

* * *

Another kick from DexDorugoramon and Blastmon rolled meters away. DexDorugoramon leaped and flew toward Blastmon's direction, landed when he was directly above Blastmon. The mineral digimon's attempt to fight back was just clinging strews; he had the Dex's knees' pointed armors stabbed through each of his palms, fixed him in position which he could only refusingly expect yet another wave of attacks from DexDorugoramon. Then came the punches. DexDorugoramon should have more variations and some more powerful attacks, but still the punching seemed to give him the best feeling. Feeling the reaction forcers ran from the knuckles through his arms to the body, that told him how hard he'd damaged his old enemy. That was the feeling that out matched all other means of striking.

As if Blastmon had lost his will to gain back his glory, he lied still, not showing any signs that suggest a potential counter attack, like he'd given up. Maybe he was being hit too hard that he was so numb to feel any pain. There were cracks, from the forehead, the chest, and they went along the whole body with DexDorugoramon's constant frequency of punching.

* * *

'Interesting, isn't it?' Plutomon mumbled, loud enough to be heard by the digi-destined approaching him. The sudden burst out of words surprised the group and made them stopped.

'What's it?' asked Akio grimly. It was a tone that the other had never heard from him

Plutomon turned to the kids, smiled and nodded toward the battlefield of DexDorugoramon and Blastmon, indicating the kids to watch the battle, and let they know that he had something to talk about it.

'That Dorugoramon,' he started, turned his sight back and fixed to the battlefield, not seemed to care if the kids were not listening, 'I found him on an occasion, back then he was barely alive, over 90% of his body was covered in sand, only a handful forearm and half his head were exposed. Usually I would just ignore it, but you know, Dorugoramon is a very rare species, especially one that weak that I can do whatever I want with him. So I dug him out, kept him for further usage. He was left alone for … like … a few months, until I saw how you used the egg's power to digivolve, but not for healing power. After seeing that, I decided to test this power out, and the subject, as you know, is Dorugoramon.'

The group fixed their sights especially on the purple armored dragon digimon, who was still raging.

'Unlike Millenniummon, I didn't do any thing on his mind; he's not a zombie. The egg changed him, physically of course, as you can see he is more robotic now. However, what I didn't anticipate is the mental changing of him. I have heard of his story. The respectful leader, believe in fair fight and all sort of that noble staffs. But look at him now, only have the wish to kill, torture his old enemy. The new power seems to have done a good job unleashing his dark side, brings out his long buried hatred toward Blastmon.' Plutomon then stopped and began another topic, 'That's enough for story telling. You didn't come here just to hear a story, and I didn't came here just to talk, I came here to slow you down.' The caped black figure turned to the kids and their digimons, making a battle-readied pose, 'shall we begin?'

* * *

Triceramon got up back to his feet to see Jun hugging on one of his leg, refusing to let go.

'No, Triceramon, it's enough, don't go back.' She cried

The triceratops gently gave the girl a little push with hid toe. 'We've been through worse things,' he comforted Jun, 'and I'll be fine.' Triceramon paused as Jun slightly released him. 'Beside,' he continued, 'You want to stop Dorugoramon deep in your heart.' He knew Jun all too well, the blonde would never give up Dorugoramon, her old friend, though now he's nothing but a furiously cruel monster.

'Yes,' Jun murmured, 'I do.'

'Then let's go.' Said Triceramon

Jun rode on Triceramon's back and Triceramon charged to DexDorugoramon

'Stop!' Jun yelled at DexDorugoramon on her way, 'stop now, can't you see he's already lost?'

The words were ignored; the Dex didn't even seem to have heard it. He was still too focus on his own business. Blastmon was nearly falling apart.

'Why it had to go like this?' Jun mumbled sadly as she another card

'Volcanic strike'

Triceramon shot a blazing jets of flame toward the gap between DexDorugoramon and Blastmon, separated DexDorugoramon's hand from touching Blastmon. Seizing the one second after the flame was off, Jun got off Triceramon's back and ran straight toward the wounded Blastmon, standing in front of him, facing DexDorugoramon as she extended her arms, showing protection upon Blastmon. 'It's enough, Dorugoramon, please stop.' She said as tears ran down her cheek, 'you're not like this.'

Either Jun's words were too soft DexDorugoramon couldn't hear or just simply being ignored, her attempt at convincing DexDorugoramon was in vain. The purple dragon treated Jun as if she was not there. He raised his arm again and formed a firm knuckle, which would fall off at any second and crush the blonde into a pump.

It wouldn't take a genius to predict what would happen next. Something must be done or the girl's death would be inevitable, and that was the future that Triceramon would never accept. The green triceratops dashed, and stabbed his horns into DexDorugoramon's chest before any one could react. He felt his horns broke through the hard metal of the dragon's chest armor, but wasn't deep enough, they didn't hurt the flesh. 'It's the only way, Jun, we have to defeat him before he kill us all, he's lost, and could hardly come back.'

Though Triceramon couldn't see Jun, she nodded with more tears falling off.

'Golden Tri-Horn Attack, Offence plug-in A'

Triceramon's horns began to glow a golden light and rotate like drills as DexDorugoramon grabbed them, trying to pull them out. Loud and uneasy noise of metal crashing was made through the act. The noise was like the one that could be heard when DexDorugoramon was making a major movement, just way more rapid, like a full on spinning chainsaw got jammed.

'Hang on there, Triceramon.' Jun uttered

Triceramon could felt strength loading to him from inside his digi-core. With a little progress each time he pushed himself closer to DexDorugoramon; the attack nearly got the mega, just a little more. DexDorugoramon further tightened his grip, and squeezed the drill horns. Cracks formed and could clearly be seen even the horns were rotating. Just at the last moment before the horns were completely broken, Triceramon used the last bit of his strength and successfully stabbed them into DexDorugoramon's real chest as each horns were broken in half and stopped rotating. With the pain brought by the attack, DexDorugoramon backed off a few ten meters, and Triceramon fell on his knees, unusually silent.

'Triceramon!' Jun yelled as she rushed to her partner, 'You okay? Say something!'

She was terrified. Triceramon might just be too weak to even speak, or passed out due to his damage, or worst, dead. Though the possibility of happening those three were equal, she couldn't help thinking to the bad way; she had lost too many, she couldn't help to have a pessimistic routine of thinking.

'Please…' she uttered as her tears almost blinded her

Fortunately, Triceramon nodded to Jun, telling her that he's alive as well as comforting her.

They didn't have much time to celebrate being alive. DexDorugoramon wouldn't wait for them to do so. The dragon digimon had got back on his feet, slowly walking toward the blonde and the triceratops while charging energy for the greater shooting. Tiny vortex seemed to have formed in his mouth as more and more particles like purple glowing things being dragged into the vortex in the mouth and mixed to glow even brighter.

'You're not hurting her any more!' A familiar voice from a boy shouted

Darkdramon landed on the sandy surface as he thrown away his lance to the ground and dashed straight toward DexDorugoramon. He had both his palms opened, grabbed the upper and lower jaws of DexDorugoramon, forcing them to stay closed.

DexDorugoramon's head swung back and forth so fiercely that Darkdramon could hardly held it in place. The mouth was slowly opening again, with light shined through the gap between the upper and lower jaws. Forces acting on Darkdramon's palms were increasing, to his fear; an explosion would take place at any second.

'I can't hold he for long!' the dark blue dragon shouted, 'take cover!'

Using the least bit of his strength, Triceramon moved just enough to shield Jun and Kin. 'Stay low.' He uttered

The time of the explosion wouldn't come any longer, Darkdramon swung DexDorugoramon's head facing the sky and let go of it. Bright purple beam fired from DexDorugoramon, forming a pillar of light connected straight to the sky, and fell as DexDorugoramon fell backward. Part of the beam backfired in the purple dragon's mouth and a small-scale explosion was taken place there. Then all left to be seen was thick layer of smoke in the place where the head should be on.

Darkdramon, along with his partner, sighed in relief, but the expression of a short lasted relax faded away. Kin did so because he was worried about Jun; Darkdramon did so for what he saw after the smoke faded away. DexDorugoramon's head was still there while it should be blasted into some mass he couldn't quite tell. Though the look of the head was slightly different from before; half of it was still the metallic armor with purple and yellow, while the left half of the armor was broken, revealing a normal living looking Dorugoramon head.

Triceramon moved slightly out of the way so that the humans could see the scene too. Jun looked into Dorugoramon's eye. It was exactly the same as that of the Dorugoramon she used to know; he looked gentle, not like the mindless monster minutes ago.

Seeing the blonde girl with his own eye seemed to truly awaked Dorugoramon. 'Jun?' he asked, 'what've I done?'

* * *

Plutomon never lose his advantage even after HiAndromon joined the battle. He moved like dancing, not fighting. The action was elegant and smooth, and was tricky enough that led to the three mega and ultimate fall on their knees. They couldn't even touch Plutomon, even with the assistants from the cards. Cerberumon stood up and strike again. He waved the right claws toward Plutomon, only to slash through air and lost his balance himself as Plutomon simply raised his arm to give the claws clearance. He dropped his arm to hit Cerberumon's back with the elbow. The werewolf digimon lay on the ground and was kicked away by Plutomon.

'As another me, I was expecting you to be stronger.' Said Plutomon, the voice calm and steady but the mocking inside it was obvious.

Too tired to reply, Cerberumon squeezed his jaws and had his eyes wide opened. Though Plutomon couldn't see that grimy face from his angle.

Glancing around seeing the exhausted partners of the new team, Plutomon seemed to be satisfied. 'Looks like my job is pretty much completed.' He said to no one in particular. Then the same portal that he always makes appeared behind him and he stepped in without bringing DexDorugoramon back. Just as the portal was about to close, he said something wired, 'Consider Dorugoramon as a gift that I dropped by.' With that he returned to his base.

Sunset, DexDorugoramon retreated his fellow Gaossmons. Blastmon, who had regained some strength, had his Gotsumons retreated as well, knowing that neither sides would actually have a victory if they kept on fighting. The war was small in scale, so the lost to both groups was not bad as lost of life, but quite an amount of digimons suffered from serious injury.

The group watched as Blastmon and his followers disappeared down the horizon.

'Where will they go?' Kin mumbled, 'their cave collapsed.'

'They've got plenty of caves below this land.' Said Jun

The group of digi-destined reunited, five humans and five digimons again.

'I can finally take a break.' Said Reiko as she collapsed. Akio caught her quickly, so the girl would not be hitting the ground.

'Oh no.' Jun uttered as she walked over, 'she's been uncomfortable earlier this day.'

Akio placed his palm on Reiko's forehead, slightly hotter than it would be normally.

'Gzz, you're hot.'

'I know.' Said Reiko with a weak smile, hoping that the red head could get her pun.

'She needs medic,' suggested Chessmon

'I know, but we didn't got any!' said Akio

Jun and DexDorugoramon exchanged a look, then said, 'I've an idea, but you might not like it.'

'What's it?' asked Katsumi, 'I don't see why we would dislike you.'

'She should be took to Plaka, there are digimons that know human medics, only…' there she stopped, as if the next line would kill.

'Only what?' asked Cerberumon

'The fastest way to take her there is to let Dorugoramon carry her and fly there, but I don't know if you trust him.' Said Jun, the voice fading since the middle of the sentence, but still could be heard.

'If you do, I do.' Said Kin

'Why not?' said Akio, 'How long would it take?'

'The should be there in a day or two, but Dorugoramon couldn't carry all of us, the rest of us have to walk a week or so to get there.' Said Jun

'So we'll see you guys days later.' Said Akio as he turned his sight from Reiko to Kin, 'you're going too.' He told the blue haired

'What?' Kin asked in confuse

'You look quite beaten up, better have a check up.' said Akio. Before Kin could react, he continued, 'Darkdramon, you can keep up with Dorugoramon, right?'

The mega nodded with a smirk, 'don't underestimate me.'

'Good,' said Akio, 'you will carry Kin to that Plaka, what's Plaka anyway?'

'It's a village,' said Jun, 'I used to live there in the past two years.'

'Sounds like a good place.' Said Cerberumon

'Well, any where is better than Blastmon's cave.' Katsumi added, successfully brought some laugh to the team.

Not much was said before they took off. Reiko on DexDorugoramon's back, still not forgot to tell HiAndromon to take care of the others, especially Akio.

Before Kin rode on Darkdramon, Jun walked up to him, saying the last few words, and then pulled him into a hug. 'Take care.' She whispered

'I'll be fine, long as Darkdramon doesn't throw me off.' Kin joked, earning an elbow from Darkdramon

The blonde gave Kin a kiss on the cheek. Then they finally took off. The digi-destined were separated again.

'So when will we meet them again?' asked Cerberumon

'I say at least a week and a half.' Answered Triceramon, who regained enough strength.

'Then let's not waste any seconds,' said Akio, 'we can still make a bit progress before it's completely dark.'


	15. XV: a day in Plaka

Day 37

Akio finally saw it, what looked like a gate made out of nothing but woods. He really hoped that was not another mirage, but the entrance of the village that Jun called Plaka. In the last week, they did got tricked by their own illusion, not only once, not twice. It first happened when they started to run out of supply, especially water. Their backpacks' losing weight day by day scared them to death. Cerberumon was one of the first to have visions, which were mostly lakes or other water supplies. Akio was the only one with enough knowledge to know what's real, while Jun and Triceramon could tell it by their experience. However, as time passed, Akio started to see visions too, only not as serious as Katsumi and Cerberumon. Due to that, he was saved by HiAndromon, the most reasonable digimon in the team, several times. And to have made Reiko's words become true just shamed the red head. Now he couldn't believe his own senses, not only his sight, but also his hearing. There were sounds that like waves, water flowing.

'Please tell me my ears work,' said Akio, 'did anyone hear something like water or waves?'

'I heard them too.' Replied Katsumi, 'Probably just too thirsty.'

'No,' said Jun. She sounded happy, making a great contrast to the rest of the team who could die any time due to the lack of water supply lately. 'We've arrived. Welcome to Plaka.'

'Please explain the sound of water current.' Said Akio

'Well, we're at the costal area.' Said Jun, 'you can see the beach once we got deep in the village.'

As the group approached the gate, another nonsense concern got into Akio's head and he asked what seemed like the dumbest thing ever came out of his mouth. 'How are we going to get in?'

'Seriously, that's what you're worrying about?' said Katsumi, 'The villagers will recognize Jun, they will let us in.'

'Right.' The red haired replied quickly, 'guess I've been out of my mind lately.'

They stood quite a distance from the main gate, afraid that the villages might not want to see strangers. Without any discussion, Jun and Triceramon stepped forward, toward the gate, since they were more familiar with the villages.

'I guess they are the one who're shy toward strangers.' The blonde whispered to her partner, referring to the rest of her group mates.

'I guess so.' Triceramon replied

Jun gently knocked the door. The door was rather huge; it had the height of one and a half ordinary human; the width was enough for three to walk through the door side by side. At Jun's eye level, there was an empty rectangular space, which was just enough for a pair of eyes to see through.

A feeling of relief flushed through Jun as she saw the black eyes through the space. That was the same gatekeeper she used to know for years- Dinohumon.

'It's me, I'm back.' said Jun excitedly

With no further checking, Dinohumon opened the gate to greet the blonde and Triceramon. Jun looked back and waved to her fellows, 'C'mon, guys!'

'I've never seen her being so happy.' Said Katsumi as she walked toward the entrance

'So, where're we going, exactly?' asked Akio as he stepped through the gate.

'Should be my home.' Said Jun, sounded like she was not sure. She then turned to Dinohumon and asked, 'Dinohumon, the two humans and Dorugoramon and Darkdramon that came earlier, like a week ago. Where are they now?'

'I had Bokomon guided them to your home. Is there a problem?' though looking fierce, the humanoid dragon's voice was surprisingly gentle

'No, just want to make sure.' Jun replied, 'thank you.'

'Told you many times, you don't need to be that formal.' The champion replied

As usual, the team followed Jun's guide. They went past street after streets. Along their way, countless semi-sphere huts could be seen, some were even double decked, most of them were made of mud. Various stores along the street, all of them were woods tied together, looked like things that scouts would build. To be honest, this Plaka place looked more like a small town than a village.

They could spot the beach at the end of the road as the sounds of ocean became more and more clear. Too inpatient to wait for one more minute to reach home, Jun ignored the others, simply ran straight toward the beach. Seeing their only lead seemed to have forgotten them, the rest of the group had no choice but to endure their tiredness and ran at full speed to keep up with Jun.

There were only two colour to be seen after arriving the beach. The yellowness of the sands and the blue of both the sky and the ocean seemed to have fussed together. There were no big waves, which provided a livable environment.

'Where's your home?' asked Akio as he slowly approached the standing Jun, still catching up his breath.

'I'll tell you later, just wait for the others.' Said Jun. Akio looked back and found that he was the second fastest in the group, with the first being Jun. The fastest in the rest was still meters away. Taking the time, the red head wondered about his speed as he looked down his feet and saw the wheels on his rollers. It was until then he realized how he used to use the rollers, that it became his second nature.

Cerberumon arrived, then Andromon and Chessmon, Katsumi turned out being the last one.

'So, where's it?' Akio asked again

Jun turned her head right with her right arm rose up, pointing. 'Over there.'

A few ten meters away where Jun was pointing, there's something looked like a house made of woods, like the village's gate. When the group walked their way there, they could definitely tell themselves all over again not to trust their own vision. The distance was much longer than it seemed to be. It took them quite some time to reach the house. As they got closer, more details of the house could be seen. There was a bridge connected with the house, extended to the ocean, not too long. A shed that seemed like a prism with its sides covered with purple drapes. DexDorugoramon was resting by the side of the house.

'Hey.' Jun waved to DexDorugoramon as she walked by. In return, DexDorugoramon smiled back to her, 'you seem happy today.'

'Of course she is,' said Katsumi, 'cause she's about to reunite with her boyfriend.'

'Even got a boyfriend now.' Said DexDorugoramon, 'You've really grown up, haven't you?'

'It's been five years.' Triceramon informed

'Oh!' sighed DexDorugoramon, 'seems like I've been out of my mind for quite a time.'

It was a little surprise to Akio, Katsumi and their partners that, DexDorugoramon was a nice guy. Though they didn't really fought DexDorugoramon, seeing how he had abused Blastmon madly, they wouldn't expect DexDorugoramon to not be mentally disturbed.

After the little chat, they finally entered the house. The interior of the house was so unexpectedly modern, like a normal apartment in the city, made people wonder that the wooden wall was just decoration. Kin, Darkdramon and a digimon that looked like a black kitty with some purple fur on her ears and tail, were in the living room. Without introducing the black cat, Jun immediately ran toward Kin, as expected. The two hugged each other so tight they seemed glued together and couldn't be separated for a period of time. Ignored them, the rest of the group turned their attention to the new digimon. 'She forgot all the manner, didn't she?' the black cat uttered and sighed.

'Can't be helped.' Said Akio with a smirk, 'they haven't seen each other for like a week and a few days.'

'And I haven't seen her for a month.' Said the black cat, 'Anyway. I am BlackGatomon, the host of the house. Nice to meet you.'

'Nice to meet you too.' Said Chessmon, along with the others.

'Where's the other girl?' asked Akio, 'the one with white hair.'

'She's still sleeping.' Said BlackGatomon, 'but she's completely fine now, just being lazy.'

'Yeah, I know.' Said Akio, 'she's always like this.'

Then Jun went to her floating-on- the-water shed to take a nap. BlackGatomon took the rest of the group to take a brief look of the house. It was basically composed of a living room and two dorms, each had two double-bunkered beds and a closet that filled with all kind of clothes one could and couldn't imagine, on top of all, each dorm had its own bathroom. And as they had observed, there's a shed outside the house, which was built specifically for Jun.

'What? No kitchen?' asked Akio

'Yep, get use to it.' BlackGatomon answered

'Hey.' Said a familiar voice that had been gone for a week. No clues were needed to tell the voice belonged to Reiko, as she just walked out from one of the dorms, looking sleepy. Unlike usual, she had her long white hair untied, and she had changed with some clean clothes, much like Kin did.

'Can't believe I missed your arrival.' She said

'What's the big deal?' asked Akio

'I've got something for you,' said Reiko with a smile, 'and you're gonna like it.'

'How can you tell?'

'Well, I know you well.' Said Reiko as she thrown something toward Akio. For a second, the red head thought he saw illusion again. The thing in midair looked familiar, like his old digivice. But that was impossible. However, when he caught the thing, he knew the impossible happened. He got his digivice back.

Without hesitation, he checked the screen. DotAgumon was still there. 'Hi.' The voice from inside the digivice said.

'Told you you're gonna like it.' said Reiko

'But how?' asked Akio. Millions of questions formed inside the red head and that was the first thing he decided to ask, which was basically a sum up of all the questions.

'Save all your questions tomorrow, take a good rest today.' Said dotAgumon, 'things aren't over yet.'

Next, Akio and Katsumi took a shower and changed some clean clothes. And then came the chat between old friends that seemed couldn't be finished, until Akio drifted the topic to somewhere else. 'Where's Kin?'

'Watching over Jun, in that shed.' Said Darkdramon

'That guy really has a strange habit.' Joked Akio

* * *

It felt like forever, yet also like just a second after she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, all she could see was the same room that she lived for two years, and the blue haired boy that she lived with for almost a month. It was till then she discovered the bandage wrapping on the boy's arm and forehead.

'What time is it?' Jun asked

'4:00 pm.' Answered Kin

'Guess I can sleep for ten more minutes.' Said Jun in a sleepy voice. Upon hearing that, Kin smiled. Back in the past, one more second of sleep meant one more second of nightmare for the blonde, and that scared her. Now seeing Jun slept in peace and even asked to have more sleep time herself really relieved Kin.

'She used to be out of sleep all night.' Said BlackGatomon

'Even if tiredness beaten her, she still has nightmare.' Said Kin, 'I've seen that, lot's of times.'

'Guess you've calmed her a lot.' Said BlackGatomon

The blue haired didn't answer in words, but in the blush on his face. 'She looks pretty cute when sleeping.' He whispered to himself when he felt Jun pulling his hand slightly. She was asking Kin to sleep with her.

'Alright, sleepy beauty.' Uttered Kin as he climbed onto the bed, placed himself next to Jun, face to face.

'Did it hurt?' Jun asked while staring at the bandage on Kin's forehead

'Inched a bit.' Answered Kin

'Remember, just ten minutes, then wake me up.' she whispered as she tugged her head on Kin's chest and fell asleep.

'I can't watch this anymore.' Uttered BlackGatomon as she walked outside the shed.

May be intentionally, may be not. The blue haired boy fell asleep as well not longer after BlackGatomon was out. And by the time the couple woke up, they found themselves slept for over three hours. It was 7:30 pm and was time for dinner.

* * *

'Where did we get all these food.' Asked Akio, staring at the dishes. Much of them were well-cooked seafood.

'Well, here's the costal area, and the fishermen need works.' Said BlackGatomon.

'But aren't those species from human world?' asked Katsumi, 'or do they live in the digital world too?'

'Digital world doesn't only contain digimons since a long long time ago.' Said BlackGatomon, 'Through out ages, random portals that connect to human world opened, may be one or two fishes went through it and conquered our ocean. They've been living in this area before I was born.'

'I thought it was Bifrost that connected the two world.' Said Katsumi.

'The city just stabled a portal and keeps it opens.' Said BlackGatomon, 'I thought schools teach it.'

'Sorry, never really been to one.' said Katsumi.

Then Kin and Jun arrived and the dinner soon ended. They had an enjoyable time of chatting rather than eating, though the food was not bad. After dinner, BlackGatomon assigned the rooms for the digi-destined, which was just separating boys and girls to different rooms, while the digimons were just stuck in the living room. The outer shed was left unused.

* * *

'Here comes the sexy.' Said Reiko as Jun walked out from the bathroom with her new outfit. The blonde was wearing a black vest and white shorts. She looked down at her exposed sunken belly and sighed, 'I guess they're too small for me.'

'No, you look good this way.' Said Katsumi, 'I really mean it.'

'You should let Kin see it.' said Reiko, 'He's your official boyfriend now?'

'He always is.' Said Jun softly. Then an idea sudden popped up in her mind, 'You've probably heard of my story.' The other two girls nodded. 'but I know quite nothing about you.'

'So you want us to tell our own story?' asked Reiko, 'should be interesting.'

'Who wanna start first?' asked Katsumi. No responds were received. Seemingly none wanted to start their tale first. It was Jun who came up with an idea, 'Do any of you have a coin?'

They immediately got the idea, 'flipping coin, fairest way.'

So it was decided that Katsumi was first one, followed by Reiko.

'Okay, so…' Katsumi started, seemingly a bit nervous

'Just tell us whatever you want to say.' said Jun, 'doesn't need to be some big secret.'

That seemed to have calmed the black haired girl a bit. As she took a deep breath, she started again.

'It's actually kinda simple. I'm a spoiled rich girl. My parents give me whatever I want; my digivice is their gift too. But soon I got tired of this kind of life, I felt myself so useless and I decided to do something on my own. First wandering off street, soon met some bad friends. Akio had meet one of them, you can ask him if you want to know more.'

'That's all?' said Reiko

'Yeah, few more words can end this.' Katsumi replied, 'After a year or so, I got rid of those friends, but still like to wander off street. Not much later I met Akio, and you know the rest.'

'I didn't expect it to be my turn that quick.' Uttered Reiko

'Hey, can you tell us how did you meet Andromon?' asked Katsumi, 'you never really said a word about that.'

'Okay, if you really want to know.' Said Reiko, 'It's quite similar to that time when you met Akio.'

'You nearly got yourself eaten by some mad digimon too?' asked Katsumi

'No, I would say it's much worse.' The white haired sighed, 'like Akio, I was lost in one of those alley when I first arrived to the city, not knowing much about its mapping. Then what came next was terrible.'

'What's that?' asked Katsumi, 'I though getting chased by a man eating digimon was bad enough.'

'Well,' Reiko started again, 'there were three or four punks, up to no good, probably wanted to rape me.'

'What?' the other two girls exclaimed

'Well I'm attractive. So, I was fast enough that I ran into a dead end.' Reiko continued, 'and then I was panicking and somehow touched something, which turned out to be Andromon, in a bunch of garbage. As if my touch reactivated him, he stood up, opened his chest gatling and scared all those punkasses away.' The white haired then giggled, 'there was no bullets actually.'

'I hope that's the chase when we first met.' Said Jun, 'you shot me.'

'Sorry about that.' Said Reiko as she realized that she didn't make a proper apologize until now. 'How did it feel, getting shot by dozens of bullets?'

'It came too fast that I hardly feel anything at first. But then the pain comes, and it really can kill somebody.'

'But what come next is sweeter than ever.' Reiko teased, 'I've heard it from the boy.'

The next thing everybody knew was that the blonde's face was bright red.

* * *

_Yet again, __anticipating__ for tomorrow, like the day it all started._ Thought Akio. Lying on a bed in a stranger feeling room, staring at the ceiling, not sleeping. Everything was just like his last day in the school dorm. What else would be installed for them, would what dotAgumon going to say bring them more trouble? Or would the journey be coming to an end? _No, __'__things __aren't__ over __yet.'__ That__'__s what he said._

**Jun's house: **** gipakll. deviantart art/****Jun-s-house-515963652?ga_submit_new=10%253A1425688754**


	16. XVI: the gathering

Day 38

Early seven o'clock, Akio and Katsumi, along with all the digimons in the team, were in the living room. 'Where's Jun?' asked Reiko as she walked out of the girl's dorm with her eyes half opening and her messy long hair untied. 'She's not at the room or the bathroom.'

'Maybe she's in another bathroom.' Said Darkdramon with a smirk, 'with you-know-who.'

Reiko giggled in response, 'I hope so.'

'Then you're gonna be disappointed.' Said Akio, 'She's just going to wake Kin up.' He then turned his sight to the boy's dorm's door as he spotted the couple walked out. 'There they are.' The red head's mouth didn't close completely, as if he had things yet to say, but instead he turned his head back to the table that held his Aurail G3, with dotAgumon inside. 'I really can't stand looking at them for one more second.' There he paused, but soon continued, 'Are they going to be like that from now on?'

Katsumi and Reiko had actually took a look at the couple the same time Akio did, but not as reactive, 'Are you jealous?' asked Reiko

'Yeah, they're just holding hands.' Said Katsumi. When she thought her sentence was finished, she remembered something that she had to add, 'and look extra sweet.'

'Just get it start, okay?' asked the impatient Cerberumon

'Alright.' The group sat around the table, each human with their digimon partner next to them, surrounding the table; and the digivice that contained dotAgumon, which placed in the middle of the table. From dotAgumon's angle, he felt like being a victim in a car crash, lying while the crowds surrounding him, the heads nearly blocked all the light. 'Is it really necessary? Can't we just be in the bed room, talking like, causally?'

'I think this kind of gathering makes better atmosphere.' Said Akio, half jokingly. 'now can we get things started? I'm sure we have plenty of questions for you.'

'Okay, what's the first one?'

'How did Reiko found you?'

'Show him.' Reiko whispered, sounded like something great was going to happen.

'Everybody lean backward.' DotAgumon demanded

'Why?' asked Akio

'Just do it.' Kin said to him

So they did as they were told. The screen of the Aurail G3 started to glow, then streams of data, like shining blocks of lego, flew out of the screen, to a rather open space, and reformed into a digimon, one that they usually see back in the city, a WarGerymon.

'You're dotty?' asked the stunned Akio

'Yeah.' Said WarGerymon, 'An Agumon's final form, what's so special?'

'Just, never thought you're a mega.' Said Katsumi

'We met at the front gate.' Said Reiko

'They all had the same face.' Added WarGerymon

'You escaped?' asked Cerberumon

'That's what's real important.' Said WarGerymon, 'It's complicated, but it's what I have been wanting to tell you all.'

'Then stop acting secret.' Said Darkdramon, 'I've waited a week for this, better be important.'

'Hey!' Kin whispered and glared at his partner

WarGerymon started, 'I met the one behind all these, he let me go.'

'Can't be that simple.' Chessmon commented

'I had to tell the whole story, from the very beginning, before I met Jun,' WarGerymon then turned to the blonde girl, 'sorry, I never told you the truth.

'To start the whole thing, first you must understand the universe that you were living in. We call it Yggdrasill, it contain worlds, only two existences were confirmed.'

'Human and Digital world.' Reiko mumbled

'Yes. In digital world, a digimon with great knowledge of Yggdrasill founded a secret order to serve the universe. The order was named the royal knights.'

'Thought it was only folk tales.' Jun uttered

'Sure most of you have heard of it.' said WarGerymon, 'any one can tell the full member list?'

'Alphamon, Crusadermon, Dynasmon, Examon, Dukemon, Magnamon and Omegamon.' Katsumi uttered, 'I can only remember those names.'

'Good enough.' Said WarGerymon, 'there are total thirteen, but almost all the core members were named, others are just minor.'

'But have they to do with us?' asked Akio

'I was one of them.' Said WarGerymon, as he expected, everyone was as stunned as when they saw him being a WarGerymon

'I don't remember any WarGerymon in the tales.' Said Jun

'Sure you know what form an Omegamon.' Said WarGerymon

'A MetalGarurumon and…' said Kin, he don't need to continue the sentence, anyone with basic digimon knowledge can tell the name of MetalGarurumon's combination partner.

'I see you all get it.' said WarGerymon, 'shall I continue?'

'How did you end up stuck in the digivice?' asked Cerberumon

'You will know when that part comes.' Said WarGerymon, 'so, we kept an eye of every dangerous objects we knew, including the egg. Not much later after Bifrost was built, something happened, the egg started to hatch.' Said WarGerymon, 'But actually it already was hatching before we knew, that's why Jun can escape so many deadly situations. But that's not the point. The egg's hatching is an unnatural event, and by this, one of our member, Duke, the Dukemon, suggested the cause of the event- the city, the interaction of the two world had caused the universe to lost its balance. He suggested that the city should be destroyed,'

'That's not quite good.' Akio mumbled

'Yeah, some of us thought that just one event didn't really indicated the universe's end, but you know what's even crazier?' asked WarGerymon, 'He gained half of the knights' support. And by his lead, they were taking off to the city. No matter what the other had said, they wouldn't listen, so there's only one way left to stop them right before they took off.'

'To fight?' asked Reiko

'Yeah, I call that a civil war, though it's just a one day fight, and only thirteen were involved. The out come is horrible, there's only two knights still standing near the end of the war. Surely you can guess these two.'

'Must be you and Dukemon.' Said Akio, 'but who won?'

'Can't you just tell it by his state?' said Reiko, 'if he won, then why he's not an Omegamon now?'

'They could be both damaged heavily.' Akio augured

'That was pretty close.' WarGerymon spoke again, 'We were both damaged heavily, that's true. But I have to agree with Reiko. The Omegamon's left arm, which is the WarGerymon part, was cut off. Luckily no one knows the conscious of an Omegamon was stored in the arm, left or right, depending who was the main component of the combination. So I escaped, but too weak that I could only be stream of data. One day I floated into Naoki's digivice, and it all started. I told him to go to Jun's island, because I wanted to settle the unnatural event without destroying the city, but we were too late.'

'So what's Dukemon's plan now?' asked Katsumi, 'if he's behind all these.'

'He was the one that took the egg.' Said WarGerymon, slowly turning to Jun, 'I'm sorry, I could have stopped him.'

'No,' said Jun, unexpectedly calm, but her hand was squeezing Kin's tightly, 'he outmatched you, you can't help it, no one can.'

'What's his next move?' asked Reiko. The question earned her a few looks from the others. 'What?'

Akio sighed, and slightly shook his head, but made no comment, 'just get on with it.'

WarGerymon took in a deep breath for preparation. It had been a long while since the last time he did it; there was no need of breathing, and also no air inside a digivice. 'He is so sick that he made a bet with me, if I can bring you guys to him, he stop his plan. If not, he will bring back all the knights, including my one armed remain, and lead them to destroy bifrost, in addition, I…have...to...join...him.'

'Then we just need to keep ourselves safe and get there. Sounds easy.' Said Akio

'We have to reach there in ten days.' WarGerymon added

'Then we're already screwed, how can we cross half an continent in ten days?' said Darkdramon

'That won't be a problem.' Said the long silenced Triceramon, 'we can ask some aqua digimons to ride us to the north, should only take days.'

'A month ago, when we discovered your digivice's signal, we used the same way to reach the City.' Said Jun, 'only took us a day.'

'But now we've got five people and six digimons.' Cerberumon pointed out, 'even Darkdramon and dotAgumon can fly, I don't think there's a digimon that can take us all.'

'You have too few knowledge of digimons.' Jun commented, 'there's a Whamon out there, he can take us all and I say he will be willing to do so.'

'Then it's all settled.' Said Katsumi, 'we leave tomorrow.'

'No, we can't leave.' Said Reiko out of the blue. As usual, she surprised the rest of the group. Without any instruction she explained herself, that Plutomon was apparently tracking on them, based on the fact that Plutomon can easily find them every times. And if they left, he would definitely attack the village to lure the digi-destined back. 'So, we are stuck in here. Unless you don't care the life of the villagers.' That left everyone speechless, knowing that they couldn't stop the Duke and keep the village safe at the same time.

'Any plans?' asked the white haired girl

'I think we'll need some time to think of one,' said Akio, 'just dismiss now.'

'Good that.' Everybody left the seat and turned to their own business.

* * *

'How's she doing?' DexDorugoramon asked Akio as he walked out of the house with his two partners.

'Can't be good.' The red haired boy answered simply, 'if you're asking for Jun.' though he knew who DexDorugoramon was referring, he just wanted to reassure. There were three girls in the team, after all, who know which one was DexDorugoramon referring.

'How bad?'

'Pretending to be calm,' Cerberumon answered, 'but failed.'

'Guess is the mention of her parents.' Akio suggested, 'good job, dotty.'

'What?!' DexDorugoramon exclaimed, 'Never mention her parents in front of her. You should be the one most familiar with it!' It was really unbelievable that, dotAgumon, who traveled with Jun for the longest time among the group, would make such a mistake.

'But she need to know her parents' murderer!' dotAgumon argued

'What good would it make?' asked DexDorugoramon, 'she's not the kind of person that would seek revenge!'

'Really?' Akio mumbled, heard by DexDorugoramon unfortunately, that he needed to explain himself. 'Um…she tried to kill Cerberumon, twice, when she mistaken him as Plutomon.'

'That's not all about revenge.' Said DexDorugoramon, 'she once told me that as the last digi-destined, it's her job to prevent Plutomon from doing more harm.'

'Wow,' Akio sighed, 'she sounded like a great person.'

'She's the strongest person I've ever seen.' Said DexDorugoramon, 'after all that had happened to her, she is still able to stand up again, not only that, but also leads another team. I bet she's the only one can do that.'

Akio remembered when Kin first told him the blonde's story. He was surely stunned back then, but he never substituted himself into that story. What would he do after a close friend betrayed him and killed nearly all the people he loved, while already had to bare the death of the parents? And when all these happened to Jun, she was at most nine years old. That was way too much for a little girl to bear, let alone over come it. And either she had over come it or not, she was still fighting for the others.

'Yeah, she's the toughest person I've ever seen.'

* * *

'Jun, your friends're here.' BlackGatomon informed the blonde girl at the end of the bridge, while the girl was hiding inside her private shed. With years of experience, Jun knew well that sleep wouldn't help her escape reality, but only bring her bad dreams.

Yet, she was in no mood handling her mixed feeling; the mention of her parents brought back the memories that she had sealed deep in a corner in her heard, worse, all those were the good times she had with them, so good that made her missed them even more, that it hurt more. And there was another feeling, the feeling of being so powerless that she had to either save a city or the village, but couldn't accomplish both. She really didn't want to sacrifice anything anymore, but the circumstance left her no choice, which just frustrated her.

So there she was, lying on the bed, hearing the sound of water current that always worked as some kind of drug to paralyze her, leaving her mind empty. That was basically the thing she did the most during the past two years, but always had her eyes opened. She dreaded closing them, dreaded facing another nightmare. Then tears fell from her eyes, ran down her cheek drop by drop. Her own thoughts saddened her. The dream that she had, was memory of her parents. Those were supposed to be happy memories, but she viewed them as nightmares. Once realized that, she felt even sadder.

Until she heard BlackGatomon's call, she swallowed a mouthful watery air, then try best as she could to hidden the dried out voice due to her sobbing. 'Let in.' she said plainly.

The unexpected persons stepped in. First came Katsumi, then Chessmon, finally Reiko. Being the last one, the white haired girl automatically closed the drape, to make the place felt more private, and more comfortable.

'I was expecting…' Jun whispered

'Got it,' said Katsumi before the blonde could finish. 'We kept him outside. We think that just girl to girl would be more comfortable for you.'

'It is.' Said Jun, softly as usual

'Already got tired of him?' Reiko teased. Everyone, including Jun, let out a small laugh, in respond to Reiko. It was actually one of the few times when she succeeded cheering up the atmosphere.

'Just nice to have you guys around.' Said Jun. She didn't realize, that she forgotten to hid her dried voice

'Have you been crying?' asked Reiko, earning an elbow from Katsumi. 'But your voice is like…'

'Yes, I've been, kind of…' admitted Jun

Then the whole room dropped silence, as no one knew what to say. As always, it was Katsumi who took the first step. 'So, wanna say something?' she asked Jun. 'It's better than keeping it all your self.'

The blonde bitted her lips, composing herself. When she was done, she took in a deep breath and started; she decided to keep it simple, 'It's my parents, I missed them'

'It's normal.' Said Reiko, 'would be a freak if you don't.'

'But,' there Jun cried again. Katsumi had to lean toward the blonde, so that Jun could make use of Katsumi's shoulder. The black haired girl handed Jun a box of tissues, to clean up her face.

'But I don't want to think of them.' Jun continued, 'every time I think of them, the feeling of never able to see them again kills me. Am I wrong not wanting to think of them?'

'It's not wrong.' Katsumi comforted her, 'It's not.'

* * *

Day 39

'_Wake up!__'_ the voice was like coming from an infinitely long distance, but clear enough. _'__WAKE UP!__'_ once again, the sound echoing in his head. Was that just part of his dream, or someone did actually calling him? Nonetheless, the peace Akio had felt in the past two days had washed through his head, completely turned off his alerts. What would possibly go wrong for just a few more minutes of sleep?

But then strange things happened. He felt himself weightless, or at least lighter than usual, and then something hit his head, the pain sting through his skull and went straight to his brain. Reactively opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling, and the view of Reiko from a low angle. 'What's it this time?' the red head naturally complained

Reiko lowered herself, grabbed Akio's shirt, and then dragged him up. So cruelly that she might tear his shirt apart. 'Why can't you be serious at the right time?!'

'What?' with no knowledge of what was going on, the red haired boy defended himself from the blaming

'The village's under attack.' Said Reiko, her voice softer than before

Perhaps still sleepy, or too shock that he didn't know how to react, Akio's respond was odd, 'OK, then?'

Upon hearing the unreasonable reply, Reiko got more furious than she had ever been. The girl shook him, not caring if his head hit any walls or other things, she had to shake him to awake. 'This is no playing! Get out and help, NOW!'

The red haired boy seemed to have a clearer mind by now, as if Reiko's method did work. The two went to the living room to meet the others; naturally, all the others gave the red head a hatred look for his being late, especially in this very time.

'Dorugoramon was fighting outside, alone.' Said Kin, 'and I don't want to delay any help, so get through this quick.'

'What's it now?' asked Akio

'We have to decide,' said Katsumi, 'help them or take off now.'

'Voting time.' said Darkdramon

So the voting result was an all pass for staying to protect the village, without further saying, the digi-destined rushed out the house and into the center of the village. The village was on fire, orange at eye level and gray above eye level.

'How did those mud house caught fire?' Akio mumbled to himself

DexDorugoramon was between Plutomon and an ugly green giant, who looked like the Hulk, with red hair and a silver gas mask, and lots of nails nailed in all over his body. And on top of all, he wore an axe on his back. DexDorugoramon received a punch from the green giant, the cracks on his chest armor extended, and he fell back, unintentionally toward Plutomon's direction. Plutomon caught the dragon before he completely fell off, and then kicked him back to the green giant's side. DexDorugoramon looked so tried and weak that he couldn't even stand probably, let alone fight back.

'Triceramon, aim at Boltmon!' Jun commended, then used her signature combo attack

'Charge up, Blaze Blast, Offense Plug-in A'

Triceramon fired the powered up fireball. It flew straight toward the green giant known as Boltmon. As dumb as it seemed to be, the Boltmon was not expecting the in coming attack and made no attempt to handle it. The fireball hit its arm, exploded. Though not very powerful, the impact was enough to shake Boltmon a bit, and released DexDorugoramon from its grip. Hot headed as always, the blonde rushed straight into DexDorugoramon, even faster than Triceramon, which left her no protection at all.

'I thought as long as we're here, the village would be safe.' Akio said to Reiko

'Guess I'm too clever.' Said Reiko

'Can't you two stop talking and start helping?' WarGerymon yelled at them, as he followed the rest of the team rushed into the battlefield


	17. XVII: breaking apart

The team spilt up. Darkdramon, WarGerymon and HiAndromon went for Plutomon, while the others fought Boltmon. The humans could fully consecrate at assisting their partners, thank to villagers; they had faced attack before, and therefore knew the right things to do. The weak stayed down in the dungeons, the strong help put out the fire, so organized, but to sad that the digi-destined didn't have time to appreciate it.

Triceramon helped get the tired DexDorugoramon out of the battlefield, and spent much effort to keep him rest. Chessmon swung her hammer at Boltmon, but no damage could be seen, on the contrary, Chessmon felt the reaction force ran through her arms, like getting shook by electricity. She stumbled back, 'We can't take it by force.'

'Surely it can do the reverse to us.' Uttered Akio

Then Boltmon grabbed Cerberumon with it gigantic fist, and smashed him into one of the huts; it broke apart instantly. The werewolf digimon yelled, much to his shame; he had almost no way to escape the fist.

'Nearly forgot you.' The red haired boy mumbled as he noticed the digivice on his arm. He quickly flipped through all the cards, but no particular seemed to be useful. 'Maybe this first.'

'Defense Plug-in C'

'Feel better?' asked the boy as Boltmon smashed Cerberumon into another hut nearby.

'Not as pain.' Cerberumon joked, 'but no use at all!'

Another fireball from Triceramon hit the mask of Boltmon. There were cracks, and Boltmon released his grip when hit. Cerberumon dashed back to his partner, stayed away from the green giant.

'Any plan?' asked Chessmon, 'We won't stand a chance in close combat.'

'No idea.' Katsumi replied, and then pulled her thermal goggles down. 'Let's see if you had a weak spot.'

Fireball, heat, an idea popped up on Akio's mind. 'Hey! Can we heat up those nails on its body?'

'May work.' Jun replied

'Volcanic Strike, Offence Plug-in A.'

'Hell Fire, Offence Plud-in A.'

Green and red fire shot from two directions, targeted at the same spot. The Boltmon was on fire; glowing color of the mixed red and green flames lighted up its body. Though the flame hindered the vision, the nails on Boltmon could be seen glowing slight orange.

'This is it, keep going!' Akio yelled

Boltmon was walking toward the digi-destined even it was on fire, the group stepped back, and the two fire breathing digimons had to move extra slow, since they needed to keep Boltmon in the shooting range. By the time Boltmon reached Cerberumon and Triceramon, it was no longer a green giant with silver dots, but a green giant with bright orange dots. Then it stopped, made no attempt on attacking; instead, he moved and shook uncontrollably. Just by watching, the kids could imagine how terrible it was to have things burning inside your body.

'Have you tried that?' Akio asked Jun

'No.' the blonde answered

'Look out!' yelled Triceramon.

Boltmon was back to his action again. Apparently the effect of the heated up nails was short term. Not only did it make light effect on Boltmon, but also enraged the green giant. It held out its axe, no one would doubt that it was not in its full on mode.

'What do we do now?' asked Cerberumon, who was stepping back as menacing Boltmon was approaching step by step.

'Don't know.' The red head mumbled

'Just fall back!' yelled Katsumi

They did keep distance from Boltmon, but long-range attack showed not much effect, as the axe always worked as a shield to cover Boltmon. For another time Cerberumon used his Hell Fire and shot green flame to Boltmon, and the green giant blocked the attack with his axe just as he did all the times. Cerberumon had taken a particular deep breath before he shot, so he could keep breathing fire for a longer time. One purpose of the act was to try as hard to melt the axe, another was to buy time for the others, so they could attack Boltmon from the back while it was concentrating on Cerberumon's fire. The plan worked well. The knock on Boltmon's head by Chessmon's hammer surely dizzied it, and yellow stars could almost be seen circling around its head. Triceramon's fireball exploded when hit Boltmon's back and sent it dropped forward, need a few steps to gain back its balance.

'It nearly drops the axe on my feet!' Cerberumon yelled and sprang back

'Then be grateful that you still have a full set of toes.' Akio replied

Though got the axe out if Boltmon's hand, the green giant was still capable fighting. It kicked the ground with the strength so great that the ground cracked, and Boltmon jetted toward Cerberumon at the speed like bolts of electricity, just like the digimon's own name. Cerberumon, following his own instinct, held up his arms to protect himself. Knowing that his killer claws wouldn't help much, however, he still had them revealed, and had their sharp ends pointed at the incoming Boltmon. Just in a flash, there were liquid like blood, flashes of light, broken pieces of the hut that the two digimons crashed into hovered in midair, and the sound of metal slicing through fleshes, and the annoyingly loud crashing sound. Dust was raised, forming a thin layer of barrier that let the three kids saw so few about the outcome.

'How's it?' asked Katsumi

With the best sight among the three, Jun stepped in front of Katsumi and placed a palm on the younger girl's face. 'It's awful. You won't wanna see it.'

'Yeah, it's kinda gross.' Said Akio

There was a very organic mixture of flesh and blood weighting on Cerberumon, who was lying on the spot where was once a hut, now pieces of broken things. The digimon took a deep breath and rested his head on the ground, and then kicked the now red and green giant off him. The lifeless body of Boltmon rolled a few times on the sand and then stopped, but did not brake down to glowing bits of data like when a digimon dies normally.

'Finish it off!' yelled Akio, 'It's disgusting!'

Cerberumon, getting up on his feet, walked slowly toward the lifeless Boltmon along with Chessmon and Triceramon, together they surrounded Boltmon from three different directions. Walking more near to Boltmon, Cerberumon raised his right arm, and let it fall at full speed to make a finial strike at Boltmon. Yet, the sudden stop of his arm shocked the werewolf digimon. Boltmon's hand dead locked on Cerberumon's arm, and the green giant used it as support to rise itself up, which almost broken Cerberumon's elbow and tore his forearm off. Once Boltmon got up on its feet and released Cerberumon, he bounced back, holding the injured arm and yelled in pain. Triceramon shot a few fireballs at Boltmon to cover Cerberumon, while Chessmon hammed Boltmon at the knees, brought it down to buy some time for reformation.

'Oh my…' Katsumim mumbled, 'the thermal graph shows that there was no wounds on Boltmon.'

'Gezz, another undead.'

'Use the same method as we did to Millenniummon!' Jun instructed

'So we have to dig a hole on its chest?' asked Cerberumon

'Yeah.' Akio replied

Cerberumon positioned his arms and gazed at his reflective claws, and smirked, 'sounds like a job for them.'

'Your arm's better?' Triceramon asked Cerberumon

With a few swings to warm up, the werewolf replied, 'better than ever.'

'Help hold it in place, will you?' he asked

Instead of replying in words, Chessmon and Triceramon got to their positions, one to Boltmon's left and one to its right. They took turns to attack. When Boltmon was busy handling one, the other assaulted from its behind. The strategy looked dirty, but it was the only mean to ensure they had got the upper hand in the battle. Finally they each locked one of the green giant's arms, fixed it still and called Cerberumon in for dragging out the digi-core of Boltmon.

Then Cerberumon made his entrance, jogged through the broken pieces on the ground and ran into Boltmon, claws stabbed into its chest, and ripped it apart, and then the muscle of Boltmon regenerated, then being ripped apart. The same procedure kept on, for the sake of exposing Boltmon's digi-core. Like went mad, Cerberumon repetitively ripped Boltmon, then stabbed it, then ripped, and stabbed, rip, stab, rip, stab; so furiously carried out that Cerberumon felt like losing his mind, just being a killing machine, or worse, a barbarian that wanted nothing but to drawn out all the energy from his prey. Blood splashed, on Cerberumon's head, his armor, his partners, the ground; the utmost thing he wanted was not to let the humans be affected by the digesting nature of the dual with the undead.

Soon or later, Boltmon's color was fading, and then its body became like an unfinished GCI model that had but green lines to outline its shape, and then the green lines faded too, leaving there nothing but the three human partnered digimons.

Though won, for some reason, no one was in mood of triumph. Besides, there was still a Plutomon to be took care of.

* * *

It was just a second ago when the hitting force of Plutomon's punch turned Darkdramon around to face the dusty ground. The blue dragon took in a deep breath and fiercely swung his body round to face his opponent, only to find that the digimon in black was already gone. Followed the instinct that was developed through all his past battles, he turned to the right, raised up the lance on his right forearm and had his left arm supported it. As he was expecting, a force acted on the lance before he could complete the defense pose. Darkdramon stepped back with his knees bent at a smaller degree. Without any vision of the force's source, he could tell that was Plutomon, who expressed his appreciation straight followed the strike.

'Very impressive indeed, to have saw that coming. I must rearrange my rating between you three.' Plutomon glanced over the battlefield, but didn't give any moment for Darkdramon to bring himself together, though. An upper punch was all that needed to knock Darkdramon's lance off to the air. With the lance gone, Darkdramon was defenseless against the striking Plutomon that was just away from him for not more than a meter. He bent the blows at the smallest angle and held his forearms close to his torso. Then came the bullets of punches, each one hit a critical point. Knowing more than anyone that he could withstand the wave of attack for long, Darkdramon extended his wings and flopped them forward. Though always got himself prepared, the sudden blew of the strong wind interrupted Plutomon, he had to held up his arms to block the strong wind. Darkdramon, however, flew back and made distance away from Plutomon.

Tired, Darkdramon fell on one knee, breathing in and out irregularly, feeling himself couldn't carry on.

Plutomon was approaching Drakdramon step by step, with energy gathered on his hands and formed spheres of transparent purple in each of the palms. Slowly bent the elbows and adjusted the position of the arms, Plutomon was most certainly ready to throw the energy spheres at Darkdramon.

Yet two incoming missiles distracted Plutomon as he waved his cape to cover himself from the attack. The spheres on his hands disappeared as he lost his concentration. Smoke screen was formed after the missiles hit their target.

'Not only Plutomon, but even his cape survived the attack!?' the stunned Reiko exclaimed

Before the smoke screen faded, HiAndromon and WarGreymon dashed inside. With their signs disappeared as the entered, all information that could help Reiko and Kin understood the circumstance were the sounds of waving and matters colliding, along with the uneasy movement of the smoke.

Following the movement of the smoke, they saw HiAndromon being thrown out of it; his left feet and right knee on the ground as he was sliding backward. To decelerate himself, he scratched the ground with the left arm and seconds later, he stopped at the ground punching pose.

Swapped a card out, Reiko was ready to use it when the blue haired boy placed a hand in front of the gril to stop her. 'You might hurt WarGerymon.'

'I will take the risk.'

'Atomic Ray.'

HiAndromon raised his arms and took aim at the cloud of black smoke, energy flow from his shoulders to the palms. From the other's vision, it was like red and blue currents of electricity flowed through his arms, one color for each. Blasts of energy were shot from the hands. Their tracks were not parallel, however. The two blasts met the moment when they entered the smoke. Due to the different properties of the two blasts, they exploded furiously once they met each other.

Couldn't saw what was happening inside the black smoke, they could only hope HiAndromon had got the right target.

Finally there was thing came out from the heavily smoked area. First one was WarGerymon. From his unsteady walking backward, everyone could tell that he wasn't on the winning side.

'Oh no.' said Kin as he placed his hand on his forehead

'No, wait.' Reiko mumbled. The second figure walked out from the smoked area. Plutomon was still a menacing black digimon, but at closer look there was damage on him. The most obvious was the torn of his cape. Surely he used them once again to shield himself from HiAndromon's attack. By that, Reiko knew that her decision was right.

'Nice.' Plutomon mumbled

However he appreciated the digi-destined, he showed no mercy toward them. He released black current of electricity from his right hand. It hit HiAndromon directly, and malfunctioned him. The robotic digimon fell on both his knees and stayed still, lifelessly.

'No.' uttered Reiko with horrified look in her eyes.

Knowing all his action would be resulted in vain, WarGerymon still decided to charge at Plutomon. The black mega merely stood there and made a slight turning to dodge the attack. And before WarGerymon went past him, he grabbed the dragon warrior's right arm.

'Remain you something?' seizing the chance of meeting face to face with Plutomon, WarGerymon asked

The black mega knew the meaning of WarGerymon. He was referring the first time they met, a village that was on fire, its defenders losing.

'Back then when I heard you blaming yourself for the village, I though a few good trains would make you a hero, one that fought for the others. But I was wrong, I should have never came to you.'

'Blaming myself?' Plutomon nearly laughed, and that just confused WarGerymon. 'I have to admit it's my weakness that caused my failing at save that village, but it's not my fault for being weak. No, it is their fault, because they took my power.'

_They?_ Thought WarGerymon

'But I should thank you for giving the opportunity, without you, I would still be that pathetic Dobermon.'

WarGerymon detached the armor of the right forearm to free his arm. It was a move of surprise that even Plutomon didn't foresee. With his own knuckle, he gave the black mega the first feeling of pain that Plutomon hadn't felt for years. The punch on the face was effective, that it had brought Plutomon down on the ground. 'I should be able to tell that you're jerk from the very beginning.'

Yet WarGerymon had enjoyed his moment for just a moment too long that Plutomon assault had got him. Even not fatal, the attack had the dragon warrior blacked out.

'Concentrate on fighting, not talking. Didn't you learn this stuffs when being a knight?' said Plutomon sarcastically.

Akio, Katsumi and Jun and their respective partners arrived just in time after the three digimons in charge of talking care Plutomon had failed.

'Good to have you all gathered.' Said Plutomon

It took Plutomon a little effort to defeat Cerberumon and Chessmon. All that left was Triceramon.

Glaring at Plutomon with hatred eyes, the blonde took out two cards, inserted them.

'Blaze Blast, Offence Plug-in A.'

The black mega didn't move. The enhanced fireball hit him right on the chest, but showed no visible damage.

'You know it will be in vain.' Said Plutomon

Angered, Jun assisted Triceramon with the same combo over and over as Plutomon slowly walked toward her. None of the attack stopped Plutomon. He stopped when he was about two meters ahead from Jun.

Jun nearly cried upon seeing the attacks being useless.

'What do you want!' Kin shouted from aside

'None of your business.' Said Plutomon

'Jun Kawasaki and Triceramon, two of my very first companions, I am here to give you an option. Would you join force with me?'

It was a big surprise to Jun and Triceramon as well as to the others. The blonde's answer, however, was not exceptional.

'I won't.' said Jun determinedly

'Maybe you will want to hear my offer first.' Said Plutomon, and yet the blonde girl showed no interest.

'I can give you, your parents.'

Jun's eyes widened as she heard the offer. What she had persisted before was all gone in a second, replaced with mixed feelings. She didn't hide them, and so her teammates could just tell all the stuffs going in her head by the look of her face, and to their concerns, the chance of Jun's changing side might just be higher than not.

'That's impossible.' Uttered Jun, 'they're long gone.'

'You know what I am capable of.'

The blonde looked down, took in a few very deep breaths. Then she turned her head slight, to look at her friends. For just a moment relief flushed through them, but then Jun turned her head, facing Plutomon, and walked toward him. Triceramon followed. The blonde was mumbling something quietly as she walked.

She arrived by Plutomon's side, turned to face the digi-destined. There was still movement on her mouth, and now they could hear it. 'I'm sorry.' She looked especially at the boy with blue hair. She had failed him; at least that was what she thought.

Nonetheless, the boy just nodded. 'Let her go.' He said so quietly that it was almost inaudible.

No one said a word against it; perhaps they thought each other agreed by default. Things were almost over, when Cerberumon stood up. He looked bad; his irises widened in red, jaws crunching, and he held up his claws at the battle-readied position.

'Cerberumon?' Akio asked, his fear had lowered his voice

His partner didn't look back, as if he wasn't loud enough.

'You traitor!' the black ultimate growled, then dashed toward Triceramon and Jun. The triceratops digimon stepped in front of Jun, however tired he was, he still decided to protect the girl.

Strong winds blown from the right. It was a surprise, to both Cerberumon and Triceramon, that Darkdramon joined the fight. Before Cerberumon could reach Triceramon, he was being pushed away by Darkdramon from the right. The furious werewolf turned to face his temporary foe.

'Kin said let her go!' said Darkdramon. He flew toward Cerberumon and grabbed both his arms. The two had lost balance and rolled a few feet as layer of brownish yellow sands rose over. It was until Cerberumon kicked Darkdramon off him that he stopped the rolling and got himself up to his feet as quickly as possible. Darkdramon, on the other hand, adjusted the movements of his wings and landed safely.

Without Akio's card assistance, Cerberumon used Hell Fire. Bright Green flame shot from his mouth; he was like a living flamethrower with unlimited fuel, the fire never stop, it burnt Darkdramon's bare arms which were protecting him from the attack. Reactively, Darkdramon drifted aside, to where his lance lay and picked it up.

'Kin! Little help!'

Kin turned and looked at Akio, their eyes met. The red head sighed and nodded, as an answer to the blue haired boy's question.

'Dark Roar.'

Darkdramon's lance now worked like a arm cannon. Bullets of glowing purple were shot from the end of the lance's stick and hit Cerberumon at several points; his shoulders, knees, anchors, all were joints. Though the humanoid dragon displaced an amazing ability of aiming, there was no time for anyone to express their appreciation, as the two digimons ran into each other and began a claw-lance fight. Theoretically, the long-ranged lance should gave Darkdramon more advantage, however, facts didn't like to go that way, it was Cerberumon who was guiding the battle all along. Not that he blocked every single blow from Darkdramon, he even countered, severely hurt the mega, and more, as they fought, they moved closer and closer toward Triceramon. Darkdramon, following his tamer's will, trying to protect the girl as hard as he could, trying not to get Triceramon involved in the fight, yet, the harder he tried, the closer he was to the failure that was obvious and inevitable. Triceramon, following Jun, stepped back, staying as close to his friend as he could. It was just that his footsteps could not keep up the speed of the two combating digimons' approaching.

It was then chaos, when Triceramon finally joined the fight. In the mess, Darkdramon got thrown away; Cerberumon took Darkdramon's lance and stabbed it into Triceramon's chest. It stabbed deep enough that it passed Triceramon's digi-core. In an instance Triceramon fell back, and the colors of him were fading.

Too shocked, Jun just looked at the triceratops that had been with her all her lifetime. She didn't know what to do for a moment, until seconds later she woke up from the shock. She ran into Triceramon, tried to grab him, but couldn't. Triceramon was already being braking down into bits of data, data that Jun couldn't hold on to.

'No.' she cried. It was the only voice in the field.

She desperately tried again and again, but each times ended in grabbing nothingness.

'NO, NO, NO!' she cried even louder, yet it didn't help anything. Triceramon was fully converted into bits that would most likely be blown away by wind.

As the blonde fell on her knees and cried, the data of Triceramon gathered, and formed a shape. It was familiar, somewhere deep in Jun's mind had the memory of seeing that, but the girl was too sad to care about it. A digi-egg was formed when she didn't notice.

Yet Cerberumon was still in rampage, and judge by his previous actions, anything could happen. Plutomon made his first step for the long while, and engaged Cerberumon. The fight was quite even, yet the mega still got the upper hand, and, after a dreadful combat, Plutomon was eventually able to knock Cerberumon off his conscious, through the concentrated wave of attacks aiming at the ultimate's head.

He walked to Jun's side, then a portal opened behind them. The blonde girl wrapped the digi-egg around her chest with both arms, and gazed back at the blue haired boy as well as the rest of team with narrowed eyes. Then, without a word, she followed Plutomon and walked into portal.


	18. XVIII: out on the island

Day 42

He came to conscious before remembering to open his eyes. All the strange feeling over his body was bothering enough that he needed quite a moment to identify them. First of all, he was wet, and cold, felt like the time had fly to mid winter. Other than that, his face, as well as his palms, felt itchy and sticky. Yet, above all, the utmost unbearable was the saltiness in his mouth. He spitted all the water other unknown things out his mouth as he opened his eyes. Not the sunlight, but the seawater stung them. The red haired boy blinked continuously to get his eyes back to normal, knowing that rub them with the dirty hands would only make things worse. The process took him a while, and the result was not like he'd expected, but at least now he could see, with a bit itch.

The view that captured by his eyes was indeed stunningly beautiful, shame that Akio had no mod enjoy them. The sea that shared the same light blue colour with the sky, plus some white bubble; the reflectively golden sands of the beach, all that meant nothing to him. Scanned around the full view, Akio discovered a few ten meters behind him was the entrance of the woods, with obvious ivy hanging off trees. Turned back to the beach, he counted the laying bodies. Cerberumon, Darkdramon, Reiko, Chessmon, Kin, Katsumi, HiAndromon, and Whamon who was resting along the coast. There was something that he forgot, someone.

_Right, dotty! _Scanned over the beach once again, the boy discovered no sign of a WarGerymon. He then checked on his digivice. DotAgumon was there, sleeping, or passed out like the others.

But there was something more important that he had forgotten, just one simple question: how did he, and the others, got to this place?

And there was no instant answer in his mind. Having zero clues in his head the boy decided to recall the events in the older time, the time when Jun followed Plutomon and disappeared with him, and the fight was over for a while.

* * *

_Still staying in the field that they fought Plutomon, the digi-destineds made no move. They sat on the ground, resting and waiting for the digmons__'__ recovers. Darkdramon and Chessmon were the first two to gain back enough strength to just stood for a while. Later the day, near dusk, when the two could walk again, HiAndromon__'__s system was booted up again. The mechanical digimon felt __nothing;__ therefore no tiredness could __hinder__ him from being his normal self. It was when the sky turned completely dark that Cerberumon came conscious once more. At first all the others were scared by his awakening, but a second later they knew Cerberumon was normal. Non of them asked Cerberumon about his rampage, as the ultimate__'__s expression had already told __the__ digi-destineds enough that he remembered all his works, and that he himself, was the most terrified with his own moves. As for WarGerymon, he converted into dotAgumon and was back into Akio__'__s digivice by the time Chessmon had recovered. He only sighed that they had lost one __precious__ day, as each seconds was important._

_They stayed for a while more, until one of them suggested to go back help __the__ villagers. They walked from the boundary of the village to its __central__, and the view was so much different from what they saw the day before. There was, __principally__, just a irregular flatness of a ground, with __occasions__ huts that had their bases remained. Rebuilding job was already on. At the scene, except for the digi-destineds, not a single digimon stopped. Some were carrying broken materials to the __wasteland__, others disturbing foods and other supplies. The huts that were not heavily damaged were being reconstructing immediately, for shelter supplies. Dorugoramon was one of those who __were__ busy flying around delivering materials. He dropped his work, however, upon seeing the digi-destineds, and had a quick chat with them. After understanding the situation of the group, Dorugoramon had them back to Jun__'__s house to rest, however the group wanted to help the villagers, they followed Dorugoramon__'__s __injunction__._

_Having quite a distance from the central of the village, Jun__'__s house remained one good piece. BlackGatomon was running it as a __temporary__ home for some small digimons. The rest of the night passed in a blur._

_The next morning, the digi-destineds were being called out early. Upon stepping __out__ of the house, they saw a Whamon resting alone the __coastline__. According to that Whamon, Jun had __contacted__ with him the day before, and, as the girl had promised, the whale digimon was willing to give the digi-destineds a ride. The group then picked themselves and sailed._

_The first day of the sail was peaceful, except for the seasick of Akio. The boy kept vomiting after the first half hour of the sail. The rest of the __detail__s were just minor things._

_They had a joyful morning the second day, too. But then came the night, and the storm. Those were not the reasons for them being on the beach, yet. They were being attacked, by __something__, probably a digimon, hiding in the dark rain. Through the light of the thunders, Akio saw a creature, __couldn't__ quite make out its color in the darkness, but its body features were remarkable. The egg-shaped brain and the never closing mouth a few inches down. __Tentacles__ spread from its limbs, and the chains wrapped them together. Riding on Whamon__'__s back the digi-destineds __couldn't__ fight at full __strength__, and then everything just messed up and __the__ sea washed them to this beach._

* * *

'Whamon!' the red head suddenly remembered, the injured ultimate. He rushed toward the giant whale, he examined Whamon, ensured that the whale digimon was alive, then he let out a sigh if relief.

The others soon awaked, they gathered, and checked their circumstance. Their caned foods were still good enough to be ate, and could serve the group for around three or four days.

'So how do we handle Whamon?' Kin asked, 'We have no ways to heal him, and if his injury gets worse, he can really die. We can't just let him die because of giving us s ride.'

'Yeah, we can't.' said Akio, 'But do any of us have any ideas?'

Most of them shook their head.

Reiko turned to Whamon and asked, 'Can you swim back to Plaka?'

'Yes,' the ultimate replied, 'but then you will be trapped on this island.'

'We're trapped anyway.' Said Akio, 'If you don't get yourself some help, you could really die, and there's not much you can help right now. We have enough food and can last for a few days, no need to worry.'

Hesitated, Whamon still felt sorry for leaving the kids to save himself.

'Just go.' Said Kin, 'When Jun returned, I want her to see you doing fine.'

And so Whamon was finally convinced to leave. The team had one problem solved, but then came even more.

'There's no way we can get to the duke in time now.' DotAgumon sighed

'And we have to camp here, we don't even know what else is on this land.' Said Reiko

'Why don't go find it out ourselves?' Cerberumon suggested. The idea stunned the others, not because of its brilliance, but because of the experience of the last scout trip, the time when they got into the way of the tribes' conflict. 'It won't be happening every time.'

'So who's going?' asked Akio, 'I volunteer. One more pair please.'

Reiko raised her hand, 'I'll go.' Then she walked toward Akio and whispered in his ear, 'Always want to have a good walk with you.'

The red head showed her nothing but indifference, then turned to Katsumi and Kin, 'You guys, grab any useful materials and set camp, okay?'

'Yes, captain.' Katsumi answered

With that, Akio and Reiko and their digimon partners walked into the woods. Kin and Katsumi watched as the four disappeared. Then the girl turned to the blue haired boy. 'How're you?'

Confused, Kin could barely thought of any kind of answering. 'What's that means?'

'You know, Jun's gone. Just wanna know how you feel.'

'Bad.'

'Of course I know it's bad!' Katsumi exclaimed, and Darkdramon laughed. 'I'm asking how bad it is.'

'It's not all that bad, really.' Said the blue haired boy, 'she must be very happy, if she can really reunite with her parents. And so will I.'

'You're just way too romantic.' Commented Katsumi, 'I don't know if I can stand if you keep being like this.'

'Just get to work already.' Said the boy

* * *

The wood gave out a creepy feeling; it was more like a jungle than a forest. Within a few feet from one tree there was another; all had their barks extended up to the ceiling of the sky, and from the points so high above that couldn't be traced lowered strings of vines and ivies. The ground was all green, with the darker tone upon the tall bushes and lighter on the low grasses; occasional water lops lay on random spots. Through the block of the trees thin light rays shone on the two digi-destineds and their digimons.

'We seem to get deep enough.' Said Reiko

'Seriously, what's in your head this time?' asked Akio as he slowed down, 'It's not just for exploring, isn't it?'

'Isn't it obvious enough?' sighed the girl

'No.'

Sighed once again, Reiko stopped, and grabbed Akio's arm to stop him.

'What now?' the red haired boy complained

'Can't you just think?' Reiko said, slightly angrier, then turned her sight at Cerberumon. 'I thought you guys would want some privacy.'

It was until that moment that Akio realized the girl's true purpose: to let him and Cerberumon talk about the topic they had been avoided in the past few days, the losing control of the werewolf digimon.

'See you guys later~' said the white haired girl as she stepped back and disappeared in Akio's sight.

In a sudden the boy felt ashamed for not thanking the good will of Reiko. He decided to save that later and focus on Cerberumon's issue first.

'So…' the boy started first, 'where to begin?'

'Man, you had your eyes glowing bright red back then.' Said dotAgumon

'Didn't really notice that.' Said Cerberumon, 'Back then I was angry, like very angry, and then every things turned wired, I want to kill but I don't actually want to.'

'I should never piss you off again.' doyAgumon joked

'You should never have.' Cerberumon joked back

'Can you remember that feeling?' asked Akio, 'the feeling when it happens, so you may be able to control yourself the next time.'

'I really wish there's no next time.' said Cerberumon, 'but about the feeling, except for the burning anger, there's one more thing that you should know.'

'What's it?'

'I felt like the time when I sucked all Millenniummon's power, when my body changed.'

'Digivoloving?'

'If that's the word.' Said Cerberumon, 'that scares me. What if I am going to be like Plutomon, to turn on you all? A Cerberumon changes to Plutomon eventually, right?' The voice of the werewolf digimon really sounded uneasy, and that Cerberumon not being like his usual self concerned the red haired boy.

'Far as I know,' said Akio slowly as he composing his words, 'there're branches of species that you can choose to digivolve to.'

'Besides, I'm quite sure that you'll be fine.' said dotAgumon

'How do you know?' Cerberumon questioned

'I, no, we just know.'

Soon HiAndromon and Reiko returned.

'About time.' said Akio, upon seeing the girl's catching breath, he added, 'Where've you been?'

'Up…th.e ..hill.' Reiko answered while still adjusting her breath and placing an arm against a tree bark, pressing her weight on the wood. 'Ther…e, there's…'

'Hey, just rest for awhile.' Akio advised

It took a few good minutes to get the girl's breath smooth and clear again. Once feeling fine, Reiko said in excitement, 'There's something you will love to see.'

So they followed the path that had just been discovered by Reiko. Only a few steps up the hill sounds of floating water could already be heard. A few more steps ahead they could see a river, with furious running water of the color of clear light blue and white bubbles on it.

'That's all?' said the boy with disappointment expectedly

'Knew it.' said Reiko, 'follow the river.'

Cording to Reiko's instruction and along the river they went. Later they arrived the destination, a cliff. The full view down the cliff was amazing, but there's a thing that interested the teens.

'How come it goes deeper than the way we've walked up here?' Akio exclaimed in wonder

'Knew you're gonna love it.' said Reiko, 'Isn't the waterfall amazing?'

'Yeah, shame I don't have a camera right now.'

'We can always revisit this place, I guess.'

'So, seen any thing like this before, Cerberumon? Dotty?'

'Never, you know I've always been with you.' Said Cerberumon

'I've actually been to here, once.' Said dotAgumon, 'those annoying Falcomons are always great companions, I wonder where'd they gone now.'

What followed next was silence as Akio and Reiko sat side by side at the cliff doing nothing but gazing at the view of the below with their digimon partners accompanied. For a second a forgotten thought flashed through Akio's head. The red head turned to the girl and spoke. 'Thank you.'

'For what?' asked Reiko with a puzzled face

'For earlier in the woods.' Answered Akio, 'do I need to give further explanations?'

'No.'

* * *

By the time Reiko and Akio returned to the beach night had already fallen. Using all the material they could find Katsumi and Kin built a tent that could barely fit in all the members. Outside it, Darkdramon had set a fire for illumining and warming. Gathered round the campfire the team had their dinner, and just when they thought a day was wasted and was about to get rest, things didn't go with the ideal way.

After all their experiences, the digi-destineds learnt to be alerted when they saw the ocean's surface went wobbly. The humans withdrew themselves away from the coast while the digimons stood in position, ready for any incoming fight.

Rising from the sea was the attacker last night. Katsumi quickly flipped through the database in the digivice and found a digimon that match the outlook of their attacker.

'So that thing's name is Dragomon.' Said Katsumi

'Guess if it's from Plutomon?'

'Who cares?' said Darkdramon, 'We're gonna fight it anyway.'

'And here're four mega and an ultimate against a single ultimate.' Said WarGerymon, 'It's almost impossible to lose.'

'Then just get on with it.' Akio complained

Dragomon had one of the tentacles arm landed on the sand. The sound of the liquidity tentacles touched the soft sand was utterly disgusting. Soon before the blue creature could land fully. Without the thunder storm the digi-destineds had an enormous advantage, with Darkdramon and WarGerymon assaulted in the sky without the need to worry being struck by lighting, while the other three digimons gave no time for Dragomon to arrange itself. Just right after the first wave of the attack, the Dragomon could no long hold itself together and even made a failed attempt to flee. The team stopped the attack and let Dragomon ran away, seeing that it did not much harm to them except for the attack the night before, and as they didn't wish to take any unnecessary life.

And so another day was wasted.

* * *

**For once, I demand your reviews! Cause I want to know who is/are your favourite character(s). Plase~ let me know**


	19. XIX

Day 43

It was another morning that the digi-destined sighed at how poor their progress was. They were stuck on an island, with fewer and fewer supplies. The only was that Whamon would let the digimons in Plaka knew their situation and sent somebody else, but by the time when help came, they would never made their way to the Duke in time.

'So which should come first?' asked Katsumi, 'our supply or to think of a way to get out of this place?'

'We can't think of a way by now,' said Akio, 'so, instead of sitting here thinking, I say we go into the jungle and find some food.' Staring at the only three of four cans of food left, beside Akio, other members worried about their own survival as well. Even if one of them came up with a master plan to make their way to the north, they couldn't carry it out when in starve.

'As usual, two pairs of us go out there and the rest guard here.' Suggested Reiko

'I'm going.' Said Darkdramon, 'I've had enough for the guarding job yesterday.'

'Guess I have no choice.' Said Kin

'Feel like staying here today.' Said Reiko, 'Katsumi, wanna stick with me?'

'Why not?' the younger girl answered immediately. Then the entire group had their eyes sight fell on Akio and Cerberumon

'Got it.' said Akio with a bit of complain in the voice.

'What's wrong?' Katsumi whispered in the boy's ear. Though it was obvious that she was not the only one to be able to feel the red head's emotion, she decided to care more about Akio as she was, far as she knew, one of the few of his close friends beside Reiko, dotAgumon and Cerberumon.

'Just not used to team up with him.' Afraid that Kin could hear, Akio whispered back in a particularly low voice.

'We should get going now,' said Cerberumon, 'Noon would come soon.'

With that the boys and their partners left the tent and soon disappeared at the entrance of the jungle. Watching them left, the white haired girl sighed, but then smiled.

Upon seeing the reaction of Reiko, Katsumi could already guess the whole plot. It didn't take a genius to know that the two boys' relationship was not all quite well. They might be work in the same team, but 'teammates' was all that needed and the only suitable word to describe their relation, not even friends were they being considered. 'You stay on purpose, don't you?'

'They just need a little push,' said Reiko, 'you know, they're at least better than at the beginning.'

'You mean not fighting each other?'

'No, no. Am I the only one to have noticed it?'

'They call each other by their first name.' Said Chessmon, 'Back when we arrived to the digital world, they still called each other by their last name until recently.'

'Good observation.' Admired Reiko, 'so what do we do now. Surely it will be pretty bored here. What did you do yesterday?'

'Busying building this tent and that campfire, that's pretty much.' Said Katsumi as she lied down, 'a good sleep may help killing some time.'

'But we're supposed to be staying alert.' Said Chessmon

A thought just flashed onto Reiko's mind as she was checking her card deck. 'Why don't we have a practice battle? We have never battled before.'

'Sounds good.' Katsumi replied as she sprang back up, 'should be fun.'

'Should be one-sided.' Said Reiko laughing as both girls and digimons walked out of the tent.

'Compare to me, you're just a beginner.' Said Katsumi

'We'll see.'

Getting to their position, they wasted no time and began the practice.

'Speed plug-in B.' just right at the beginning of the battle, Katsumi assisted Chessmon with the thing she lacked the most. In a flash, she drifted to the right of her opponent before HiAndromon could react. Holding the hammer low and hit the robotic digimon with an upper attack, the smash successfully sent HiAndromon up high in midair. Chessmon got herself back to combat pose as HiAndromon was still inches above the ground and held the hammer high above her head, with the aid of the gravity the speeding hammer jetted down.

'Finished already?' said Katsumi

'Defense plug-in C.'

HiAndromon crossed his arms and held them above, endured the hammer strike. With the plug-in, his armors were enhanced to the level that could withstand the attack with only tiny cracks left on the armor.

'You know what's the fatal flaw of heavy weapons?' said Reiko with a smirk

HiAndromon rolled himself away from Chessmon as her attack slowed down. Chessmon was already gasping for air, and had the heavy end of the hammer rested on the ground.

'My turn.'

The robot digimon got up, still having a knee on the ground and straightened both arms, with the open palms pointing at chessmon and fired balls of energy from the center of them. Seeing the incoming attack, Chessmon dropped the hammer on the ground and jumped back. The seemingly countless energy balls coming random direction from her front. Dodging left and right restlessly, HiAndrmon's shots slight passed Chessmon, and exploded on her surroundings. Smoke arose, covered Chessmon. Neither of the digimons could get a clear view of their opponent. HiAndromon stepped back from the smoke, in case of any assault from Chessmon. He still had his palms aiming at the position of the smoke screen.

'Not bad.' Katsumi commented

'Oh, thanks.' Reiko replied

There was movement in the smoke; even the slightest one could be detected by HiAndromon. Having charged up with energy, the robot digimon was at ready to shoot the queen digimon that was to dash out of the smoke. Yet it wasn't Chessmon that was out of the smoke screen, it was the hammer that was being thrown toward HiAndromon. Taking instant action, HiAndromon released the blast from his palms and bent the route of the hammer. It fell right next to the robot digimon's side. By the time, the smoke had already faded and Chessmon charged at HiAndromon; the robot digimon charged too.

When they were only inches from each other, Chessmon leaped out of HiAndromon's expectation. Taking a step on the robot's shoulder as a step stone, Chessmon reached the behind of HiAndromon, to the spot where her hammer was dropped. Quickly picked it up she waved it horizontally at HiAndromon, who lowered himself, dodging the attack as well as flipping himself back, had the body up side downed with his arms supporting the weight and the two legs kicked Chessmon on her upper torso. Chessmon took a few steps back reactively to get use to the tendency of falling back. Soon when Chessmon was about to regain balance HiAndromon grabbed the left arm of her, swung her to the right. Taking the chance Chessmon used the throwing force to get herself to the back of HiAndromon and had the hammer hit him.

Both digimons fell. HiAndromon pushed himself up, only to have the stick end of Chessmon's hammer. Without a doubt HiAndromon grabbed the stick, immediately he regretted the decision; Chessmon swung up HiAndromon. Having released the stick HiAndromon found himself rotating naturally, arms extended already while still in midair and aimed at Chessmon, fired.

* * *

Into the jungle, the boys searched round while walking front; their digimons were behind them. Unlike the boys that barely take conversation, the two digimons getting along completely fine.

Not far away from their spot, Kin saw some colorful things hanging on a low branch of a tree by a random glance. The first though, the wild guess of the identity of the colorful objects, that came into the boy's mind was that those were berries. By estimation, Kin would say that they were hanging above ground for about fifteen feet five, not really a challenge to climb up there. Exited with his discovery, Kin forgotten to tell the others as he took off to that direction.

Though unable to make a discovery like Kin did, Akio was still an observational boy. Noticing Kin's turning direction just as the blue haired boy took off; he followed him with a wave to Darkdramon and Cerberumon, informed they to follow.

It was not a very distanced path to the berried tree; Kin arrived there with three minutes or less. Sizing the tree bark, the blue head quickly found a suitable spot to garb hold on. Raised the right arm up and grabbed on, he pulled himself up, with the friction holding the tip of his feet on the bark while he grabbed the higher post with the left hand.

'What are you doing?' asked Akio

'Finding us foods, any problem?'

'No,' replied Akio, 'I mean you don't need to go by yourself, why don't let Darkdramon or dotty do it?'

'You think I'm gonna fall down or something?' asked Kin as he had his hand reached out for the berries that were only a centimeter or less away from the tip of his fingers. Just a bit further, that would be enough. Extended his arm just a bit more he grabbed hold of the berries. Yet, the center of gravity of the boy shifted and pulled the boy down the tree. Reacting in no time Darkdramon dashed and caught the falling Kin.

'Thanks.' Said Kin with a smile

'You owe me a favor.' Replied Darkdramon with his usual smirk

'Told you.' Said Akio

Kin didn't respond with words, just with narrowed eyes.

'Eatable?' the blue haired boy asked dotAgumon

Streams of data flushed out from Akio's digivice and reformed as WarGerymon. The dragin warrior received the berries from Kin and took a god detail look of them. Having them examined carefully, he spoke in a voice of relief.

'Lucky you didn't fall in vain.' Said WarGerymon, 'yep, eatable. I guess.'

'What do you mean guess?' asked Akio

'I'm not a hundred percent sure.' Replied WarGerymon dryly. 'In time like this I really miss Jun, she can tell if the fruit is poison or not in just a glance.'

Bringing up the blonde girl's name seemed to have brought down the mood of the team. They dropped silence right after WarGerymon's talk. And Kin seemed to be the most affected as he turned and walked away without saying a word. Akio followed.

'Should be interesting.' Cerberumon commented

'Yeah, just stay close and watch.' Added Darkdramon

The red head struggled his way through the high bushes as he needed constantly move the grasses out of the way. Endlessly waving the hands to the left and to the right, it was not an easy path for both boys.

'Wanna get alone to depress?' asked Akio, half teasing and mocking

'No.' Kin answered firmly. 'Just want to find more of that fruit.'

'You're playing tough.' Said Akio, 'regret letting her go?'

'No.' answered Kin, still walking forward and refuse to look at the red head

'Then why have we walk passed so many of that berry tree? And you're still walking.'

The blue haired boy stopped and turned round, facing Akio with angered eyes.

'I am not playing tough!' he shouted at the red head

'Oh yes you are.' Said Akio in a hateful tone, even if he was correct, he's not making people like him. 'You are, back to the time when we first met, all the way till now, you are pretending.'

Once again, falling silence, didn't know how to react, the blue haired boy walked away.

'Enough talking.' He mumbled

'It's normal to be 'weak', you don't need to hide it.' said Akio, loud enough that he could be heard by Kin, 'Just like when you proposed our alliance.'

'An alliance indeed.' Said Kin, not quite audible, but enough to be heard by the others, 'not even a team.'

_Opps! _The red head realized that he had just picked the wrong word, and was misunderstood by the other boy. It was one of the times when he asked himself that why things were screwed up every times he spoke with that boy.

'I…I didn't mean it.' Looked back at the digimons he seeks help from them, hopefully them had a better mouth than he did.

'You've gotta fix it yourself.' Said Cerberumon

'What? Come on, you're not gonna abandon me!' the boy whispered

'Not abandoning you,' said WarGerymon, 'helping you.'

Disappointed, Akio turned round and saw Kin was already far away, concentrating collecting fruits. Most possibly paralyzing himself by the workload. Glanced back once more and received nothing but slight nods; the red head was forced by no one but the circumstance, to take the first step to fix this relation. _I__'__m calling myself a bridge __burner__._

'That was not a bad fight.' Said Reiko, lying on the sandy ground

'Yeah, just can't believe I lose to you.' Said Katsumi, sitting next to the lying girl, 'It was just a slight chance that I couldn't grab.'

'It's me who didn't.' said Chessmon

'No, you did your best.' Katsumi comforted her partner, 'So what to do now? Just staying here doing nothing?'

'You can go swimming, if you want.' Said Reiko indifferently

'If you have a swimsuit.' Added Katsumi

'Good point, totally forgot it.' uttered the white haired girl, 'Hey, you know what? I can't actually swim, neither can he.'

'Then you've got to be extra careful in the coming days,' said Katsumi, 'seems like we'll be spending lots of time on the sea.'

'Sure.'

Walking close to the blue haired boy, Akio had to admit that it was a rare case that he felt pressure. Nervous, the red head was busy searching words in his mind. It seemed that any more saying would worsen the atmosphere. A bit closer to Kin, Akio could see that the boy was picking more of the berries; the same kind that he discovered.

Leaned close to Kin, Akio finally spoke, words that even the red head himself felt unexpected.

'Have you ever tasted it?'

'No,' answered Kin plainly, 'have you?'

'Neither.' Akio replied, 'I am wondering, what if it tastes bad?'

'Never thought of it.' said Kin

Extended a hand to Kin, Akio grabbed one of the fruit and took a bite on it.

'Wow, what are you doing?'

'Tasting, obviously.'

'You don't have to do it yourself.' Uttered Kin

'What? You think I'm the kind if jerk that had others do all the works for me?'

'Sorry.' Kin apologized.

'It should be me saying it.' said Akio, 'sorry, for what I've said before. I'm not all that good in talking.'

'I've faults too.' Said Kin, 'and I think you're right, about me.'

'What?'

'Never mind.'

And so the boys found their seats on the ground. This way, they found the chat more comfortable than standing. Staring at the endless green and having the arms wrapped round the bent legs.

'So, how does it taste?'

'Not bad,' commented Akio, 'It's like a sweeter lemon with the texture of, er…, grape? I guess.'

'So I did pick the right fruit.' Said Kin, bit of boastfully, though anyone could see that he was only playing with tones.

'Apart from the fruit,' Akio started, 'I want to know why you let Jun go, I don't know if I could do the same if I were you.'

'It's complicated.' Kin replied, 'Mostly I just wanted she to be happy, besides…'

'Besides?' curiosity began lurking into the red head's heart

'It's my very own secret.' Said Kin, 'I don't just give it away.'

'What!?' surprised, Akio exclaimed, 'C'mon, man.'

'Trade it with your secret.' Said Kin with a mischievous smile, 'I know you hide many things.'

'Do we really need to do this?' asked Akio, 'I thought we're friends.'

'Just yes or no.'

'I thought I know you.' Murmured Akio, 'alright, yes.'

'You sure?' Stared at Akio with questioned eyes, Kin asked

'What? You demanded it.' annoyed, Akio replied

'Okay, let's get it started.' Said the blue haired boy, 'I think my letting Jun go has something to do with my background. I am sort of an orphan. My parents divorced and abandoned me when I was six or seven, and then I lost everything but Megadramon. It wasn't a complete tragic, though, my parents were never nice to me. Next, a new life started, I moved to Bifrost and earns my life as a tamer partnered with Megadramon. When Jun lived with me, I've heard from Triceramon about her parents. Jun' family sounded like the one that I always desired. So I…I..I don't want her to waste the chance. I know how she felt.'

'It's not that complicated.' Akio commented, 'Who else knows you're an orphan?'

'Just Darkdramon.'

'How about Jun?'

'I lied to her, said that my parents work far away.'

'Technically it's true.' Said Akio, 'They just never come visit you again.'

Kin laughed, 'Yeah, that's kinda true.'

From a distance, the three digimons saw that Kin and Akio were getting along well, chatting and laughing. It was the time for them to interrupt them or the two boys could talk to the end of the day.

Seeing their partners' approaching, the boys got up on their feet and turned to the digimons.

'Remember, never mention it.' said Akio, clearer than anything he had ever said

'Sure,' Kin replied, 'It's really a surprise to know that you had such a secret.'

'And don't blackmail me.' Akio added

'Of course I won't.' Kin replied, sounded like that was his reasonability, 'Especially keep it away from Reiko, got it.'

'Keep what from Reiko.' The voice of WarGerymon came into the ears of Akio and Kin, and, normally, they didn't spring back a bit once they realized they were overheard by others.

'Nothing,' both said simultaneously

'I'm gonna tell her,' said WarGerymon, 'that you two was hiding things from her.'

'Come on, who's side are you on?' asked Akio

'There're sides among us?' said Darkdramon with a raised eyebrow

'Anyway, let's get back to our main job,' Cerberumon suggested, 'how much food have we gathered?'

'Enough for this afternoon.' Kin replied

'Good,' said Cerberumon, 'they let's get back, none of us planed to starve the girls.'

'Thanks.' Akio said to Cerberumon on their way back

'I'm, we're, still gonna tell Reiko.' Said Cerberumon

'What? Come on!'

It was a long way from the beach to the spot of the boys. They had gone pretty deep into the jungle, and they had merely gone through half the way when they were almost ran out of topics. The quiet walk didn't last long, though, when the screeching wind broke the silence. This sound was familiar, and the group could pretty much guess what was going on as the levees was blown at them and a bright purple light blinded everyone.

It was the portal opening. What appeared to be a Brachiosaurus with silver armor all over the body, stood over twelve meters, and with a blonde girl be his side, walking out of the portal.

'You know it's coming.' Jun murmured, looking down at the ground instead


	20. XX: the last megas

'UltimateBrakimon.' Akio read the information shown on the digivice, 'Mega level.'

'From an egg to mega, in just four days?' WarGerymon exclaimed, 'Is that even possible?'

'As real as you can see.' Said UltimateBrakimon with the head lowered

Cerberumon and Darkdramon held up their weapons, stood at ready.

'We all know the inevitable.' Uttered Cerberumon

Nothing more needed to be said, the fight had began as UltimateBrakimon waved his axe-ended tail at the three digimons on Akio's side. Alerted as always, the three digimons found their way out of the attack within an instant. Both Darkdramon and WarGerymon flew up high while Cerberumon dodged down to avoid the strike. A few braches were chopped off by the slash, and the two humans, quickly, ran out of the dropping area.

'Akio, you okay?' Cerberumon asked as he held up his claws to block another tail strike from UltimateBrakimon.

'Yeah, sure. Both of us are doing extraordinary,' replied Akio as he turned and looked at Kin, 'right?'

'If you say so.' The blue haired boy replied dryly

'Good,' uttered Cerberumon, 'any plan?'

Akio looked up at the two dragon digimons in midair, 'Can you hear me?'

Before hearing any reply, the first thing that into the red head's ears was the screeching of the levees and woods. The next thing he saw was another branch falling off just right front of him, and he had every sense of feeling himself heading toward that way. Trying hard to slow himself down, he turned his running steps to jogging and then finally stopped.

'That was close.' Seeing the fallen branch was just lying in front of him, hit the tip of the tip of his toes, Akio sighed

'So what's the plan?' Darkdramon shouted from the sky while flying back and forth, dodging the energy cannonballs from UltimateBrakimon

'One of you high up go keep his head busy while the other keeps his tail busy! And Cerberumon go for the legs!' Feared that he couldn't be heard, Akio shouted out loud

'I though you were telling us a plan, not what we're doing right now!' Shouted Cerberumon as he rolled away from a step from armored Brachiosaurus

'Then stick with your own business!' Akio shouted back

Until this moment, all Cerberumon had done was merely rolling over from one spot to another as there was always a giant foot up above his head falling every times he stopped even just for no more than a second. Jun had obviously resized her partner; had him been in full size, the werewolf would have been crushed to death by now. And in all the massive noises of the battle, Cerberumon couldn't hear the blonde using a single card to assist UltimateBrakimon; it was not the power from cards, but the raw speed of UltimateBrakimon, who was expected to be a slow and less articulated digimon judging by his look of heavy armor and massive size. Cerberumon needed a break out of this endless dodging cycle, desperately, or he would get tired and be mashed into a pump.

'Little help! Akio!'

Cerberumon could hear Akio saying 'got it.' or other things that the red head would say for reply in the mix of noises. Later the moment, he felt a surge of power running through his body and was floating to the same direction: his throat. Following the feeling of the power's float, Cerberumon opened his mouth and breath out a jet of green flame.

It hit its target: the right front leg of Ultimatebrakimon, and the attack seemed to be working, as the dinosaur stumbled back.

Taking the brief moment of break, Cerberumon looked up and saw the two dragon digimons jammed in the middle of a harsh fight. Darkdramon was still using much of his effort to evade the cannonballs while WarGerymon was being slammed away by the strong tail of the armored Brachiosaur. Yet the success of Cerberumon's attack gave the two airborne digimons a slight chance to break through the harsh circumstances.

The short-lived moment for Cerberumon to feel proud of himself had ended as Ultimatebrakimon recovered far sooner than expected. Unprepared for the fast reaction of Ultimatebrakimon, the werewolf was kicked away the dinosaur. Slamming hard on the ground, Cerberumon saw the same giant foot right above him, descending, like it always did, only this time Cerberumon was not able to dodge it. Holding up his arms covering the upper torso, Cerberumon found that he actually had enough strength to block the stomp, even though it consumed much of his strength and he was merely holding the foot a few inches away from his body. Maybe after all, Ultimatebrakimon wasn't as heavy as he looked like.

Just when Cerberumon thought he could hold Ultimatebrakimon's stomp long enough until he slipped out, another unexpected broke his plan. The thruster on the upper thigh of Ultimatebrakimon was switched on and emitted heat waves of burning gases that stroke Cerberumon right on the front.

It was all smoke, or gases, that Akio could see covering Cerberumon. He had already given Cerberumon the defense plug-in, but whether Cerberumon could survive the thruster or not was still unknown.

'Dark Roar.'

It was Kin who did the immediate decision, to have Darkdramon shot bullets of dark energy at Ultimatebrakimon's thruster. It didn't do a whole lot of damage, but was enough to shut the thruster down. WarGerymon then flew straight into the smoke that was still there and grabbed Cerberumon out.

'You still good?'

'Can't get better.'

WarGerymon then dropped Cerberumon down somewhere far from Ultimatebrakimon, and flew back to the battlefield.

Leaning on a bark and slowly dragging himself up, Cerberumon could barely keep himself standing. His armor was still blazing hot, with some cracks. Looked back at the battlefield, he saw a figure approaching him. That was Akio, without a doubt. The red head ran fast, constantly leaping over fallen woods, making his progress. It didn't took much time for Akio to reach Cerberumon, and the werewolf digimon yelled at the boy when they were a few inches apart.

'Don't get too close!' he looked at the smoke coming out from the armor, then turned his sight back to the boy, obviously they all understood each other.

'How're they doing?'

'Not very good.' Akio replied, rowing his eyes

'There must be something I can do!' frustrated, Cerberumon punched the tree. A few levees fell on Akio's head and the boy needed to swipe them off again. 'Just can't my armor cool down faster.'

'Cool down?' Akio whispered to himself, recalling all the usable resources from the surrounding. Very soon he thought of the river that he had been to the day before, the water might be able to be used as cooling agent if it wouldn't flush Cerberumon away. Nonetheless, he made the suggestion. 'How about the river?'

'Why haven't I thought of that!' Cerberumon exclaimed, 'what are we waiting for? Let's get there!'

'But,' Akio stated his concern, 'can you walk yet?'

'No problem.' Said Cerberumon as his quit leaning on the tree, but fell on his knees right after that. Worried, Akio rush toward Cerberumon, but was scolded to stop. 'Stay back! Can't you see my armor is still smoking?' Then with struggle, the werewolf digimon stood up. 'Let's go.'

'Sure.'

In short time, Akio and Cerberumon reached the river. They still felt sorry for leaving the others behind, but it was necessary to help Cerberumon so that he could be back in action as soon as possible.

The current was furious as usual, just be a glance Cerberumon really hesitated, for he might be washed away by the water, straight down falling off the waterfall. However, it was not the time for cautious consideration, Cerberumon carefully dimmed his forearms into the water, those surrounded the arms of Cerberumon was immediately evaporated; more vapour rose, forming thin layer of mist. Cerberumon did feel better, after the burning heating on his arms were gone, or at less reduced a lot. Seeing that, he decided to get himself into the water fully.

'Be careful.' Akio reminded

'Got it.' Cerberumon replied. He stabbed the claws of the right hand into the soil near the river and than jumped right into the water. Tons more of water vapour rose and the mist could have its name changed to fog.

Minutes later, Cerberumon came back out from the fog. Though still looked damaged, he was in a shape way better than before.

'How're you feeling?'

'Good enough to fight.' Cerberumon shrugged his shoulders and waved his claws. 'Let's go, there need our help.'

As they turned to the direction of the battlefield and readied to rush to help, the one that needed help came to them. There was an explosion; it sent a girl flew at Akio's direction, followed with a robotic digimon.

'Reiko?' Akio asked in surprise, 'what're you doing here?'

'I have to be both blind and deaf to not know you guys are in trouble.' Lying on the ground, the white haired girl let out a hard smile. 'Give me some help?'

'Sure.' Akio rushed to Reiko, kneeled down, wrapped his arms round her torso to lift the girl up.

'We're close.' Reiko whispered as she pretended to be losing strength and leaned her head on Akio's

It was one seldom occasion in which the red head felt strange; he couldn't tell exactly what emotion he was processing but he could certainly felt the heat running on his cheek and ears, with his heard pumping fast.

'It's not a good time to play.' He whispered back, and then let go of Reiko. Both stood up with their digimon partners came close to them. The next thing they saw was Ultimatebrakimon broke through to the river zone, while Darkdramon, WarGerymon and Chessmon were still battling him.

'Nice to see you guys again.' said Darkdramon while shooting bullets of energy at Ultimatebrakimon. Unlike before, the attack this time seemed to be working, even if it was only stretching the armored dinosaur bit by bit.

'How's things going?' asked Akio as he and Reiko rushed toward Katsumi, while Cerberumon and HiAndromon went back to battle.

'If you're asking about the fight, it's going pretty smooth. But if you're asking about Kin…' Katsumi hesitated, then turned her sight at the blue haired boy

'I know what you mean.' Said Akio, 'better just focus on the fight.' He then ran into the battlefield

'We should get going too.' Said Reiko as both girls followed Akio

The situation was quite goofy for Ultimatebrakimon. He was surrounded by five digimons, four out of five were mega, like himself, and firing at him from different directions. Darkdramon and WarGerymon from the sky, one on the left and one on right, and then there were Cerberumon, HiAndromon and QueenChessmon, who theoretically had no long-range attack, firing at him from the ground. Combined, all this attacks were only enough to stretch him, though. Yet, stepping on the soft soil near the river, it was not easy for the armored dino to make a move; the ground provided no enough normal force to support him, he could felt himself slowly sinking already.

The other problem was Jun, his partner. She was not determined enough, could be told by her lack of using cards. Of course it would be hard for her to fight her friends and lover; UltimateBrakimon found it hard to fight his friends too, but Jun was more important, far more than his friends. And he would do anything for the blonde girl, even if he had to beat all his friends.

Yet he was starting to be overpowered by the five digimons, and if he failed his job, his partner would lose the last hope to reunite with her parents as well as losing her friends, as Cerberumon had said, they were traitors, after all. When he thought of that, he started to become anxious, and fired a cannon of energy at one of his foe without further thinking, which leads to his lost of balance due to the ground couldn't support the reaction force of his firing.

It's all over, he couldn't get back up by himself, the battle was lost.

Darkdramon and WarGerymon landed near Ultimatebrakimon, along side with Cerberumon, Chessmon and HiAndromon. They wanted to talk, but none of them dare to say anything, fear that a word wrong would lead to the blonde's mental breakdown. Not even the most talkative Darkdramon and WarGerymon spoke.

Kin took half a step toward Jun, but immediately drew back; he wasn't sure if it was the right time to talk.

To all's surprise, the first movement of lips was on the lips of Jun's. It was only slight movement, not even the quietest sound was made as another brazing wind stroke. It was all too familiar to tell what was going on: a portal opened. Even Jun herself and Ultimatebrakimon turned look at the opening portal with shocked eyes. Then a hand of giant grabbed Jun; another hand grabbed one of Ultinatebrakimon's legs and dragged them toward the portal with great speed. Before anyone could chase in, three extreme skinny black demonic digimons walked out of the gate, blocked the way as the portal closed quick.

'Jun!' the blue haired boy extended his arm toward the once portal's direction, but could do nothing.

'So Plutomon decided to give us three notorious Diablomons and keeps Jun for himself.' Reiko mumbled.

Akio wanted to reply, but time didn't allow him to do so as the Diablomons were already in action, and one of them was dashing right toward the red head. It ran like a wild lion, when it nearly pasted Akio, it waved the boy away with its right arm, or front leg. So unfortunate was that Akio was being thrown into the furious water of the river, and normally he was being rushed toward the cliff's direction. The water was too strong that the red head could do nothing to fix himself in place.

Cerberumon, of course, was the first one that tried to save Akio, but a Diablomon jumped to his front and blocked his way. With its tentacle like arms extended round Cerberumon. The werewolf digimon slashed the arms of Diablomon, only to find that they were way tougher than he thought. The arms wrapped Cerberumon around, and raised him to Diablomon's chest level.

'It's just grouse to be hugged by this thing!' uttered the werewolf

The green sphere in Diablomon's chest glowed. Just by its look Cerberumon could tell that nothing good was going to happen.

Kin, realized that the three Diablomon simply annoyed the existence of the humans, seized the gap when Diablomon grabbed Cerberumon and ran fast as he could to the river. Just not long after he started the run, a sound of explosion, as well as the force, struck from behind. It sent him fell forward and lay on the ground. Though exhausted, he got up to his feet quick, there's a life to save! Just thinking about that had made him overcame the tiredness. As he ran along the river he took a peek at his behind and saw Cerberumon had fallen on the ground. Turned his head back and accelerated, the distance between him and Akio had been shortened.

Yet, as the blue haired boy ran, he noticed that the cliff drew nearer and nearer, about just ten meters or less. On and on he ran as he extended his left arm and tried to grab Akio; they were close enough, only that Akio's arms were too wet and smooth, and Kin lost the first grip. There was only one more chance before the red head fell off the cliff. Determined, Kin extended his arm to Akio again and grabbed the forearm of him, fixed this time, right before the red head fell.

The situation wasn't totally safe though, as Akio was only hanging midair by one arm of Kin.

'Hold on.' Kin yelled

'Do I look like giving up?' Akio yelled back, 'and where're the others?!'

Though afraid of losing the grip, Kin looked back for just a second, then turned back to Akio. 'The Diablomons surrounded them, shouldn't be able to get you at once.'

'Then you'd better tighten your grip.'

'Already on it!'

Cerberumon, having recovered from the last attack, still trying the best he could to break through the flesh barrier of the Diablomons. The others were, too, trapped by the Diablomons. Only if he could break a hole for WarGerymon or Darkdramon to fly the boys back. As the more time pasted, the more anxious Cerberumon grown, and the more frustrated he was about the almost indestructible defense of Diablomon. Almost mad out of the mind, the werewolf attacked furiously and yet mindlessly. Seeing his attacks being in vain, and Akio was slipping away from Kin's grip bit by bit, Cerberumon couldn't control his mixture of emotion anymore, even though it meant that he would lose control like the last time he fought with Darkdramon and Plutomon. In fact, he could already feel that strength building up inside him, and he didn't plan to compress it either.

'Hold it, Cerberumon!' Katsumi shouted, seeing that Cerberumon was being weird again, 'you may trouble Akio and Kin!'

Though raging, Cerberumon still held a little reason, and that was enough to let him understand Katsumi's words. The first priority should be rescuing the two boys, not crashing the Diablomons into dust. With the increasing strength and the little remaining reason, the werewolf did what he though was correct.

He jumped up, stabbed his right claws into Diablomon's shoulder. Not only to the others, but also to Cerberumon himself, it was a great surprise that he did actually harmed Diablomon. Then, using the stab point as support, Cerberumon swung himself round and reached the back of Diablomon, kicked it with both feet to pull the claws out, and then landed, outside the circle the Diablomons had made.

Being the only one free, he rushed toward the cliff at full speed, hoping that he could make it in time.

Good fortune didn't last long, however. As Cerberumon accelerating, he saw how his partner was at stake; it was worse than what he saw before, or perhaps he just didn't grasp a good view back then. Akio was on the edge of falling, with only four fingers grabbed by Kin. It was already a miracle that they could last so long.

Though speeding up, there was still s distance between Cerberumon and Akio, and there was no way that Cerberumon could make it in time. Against all odds, Cerberumon had no intention to give up, neither had the red head. Even though the situation was seemingly hopeless, there was only one thought inside Cerberumon's head: _Almost there__…_

'Hang on.' Kin said to Akio

'I know. It's like the tenth time you say it.' the red head replied with a false smile, knowing that his fall was inevitable.

'Don't tell me you're giving up now!' Kin yelled

'How did you… never mind. If I fall, don't blame yourself.' Said Akio as he felt himself slipping away from the blue haired boy's grip.

'What are you talking…'

'Just promise me!'

'Okay, okay!'

It was right after Kin's promise when the link between the boys finally broke. Though unwanted, the red head could do nothing more. Feeling the lost of his own weight while watching everything from above becoming smaller and smaller; the boy with the blue hair reached out his hand and screaming. If Akio was still in mood for a joke, he would say sheer horror would had killed him before he hit the ground. But this was it, everythings came to an end… except for a blue flash that passed the blue haired boy within an instance, then right off the cliff. A strange and yet familiar feeling came to Akio just as the flash disappeared from Kin's side; it was the feeling of being supported, not mentally, but physically. So solid he felt, and then slowly rose up, above the cliff, and then being dropped next to the stunned Kin.

The red head turned to his savior, it was a digimon, covered in armor of the color metallic blue, looking like a werewolf- the body proportion of Cerberumon, with a lot of guns attached. A some sort of like beam cannon on the right shoulder, missile launchers on the left shoulder and both lower legs, a triple barrowed gatling gun as the left forearm, and thrusters on the back that kept the digimon levitated.

'Cerberumon?' though looking completely different, Akio could tell just be the feeling of the digimon.

'Yeah.' The digimon replied, 'But it seems that I have a different name now.'

'Metal Garurumon X.' said Kin, having recovered from his shock toward the twist of the event. 'It's how the database recorded your spices.'

'That's quite a long name.' Said Metal Garurumon

'We'll handle your name later,' said Akio, 'we've still got three Diablomons to take care of.'

'Yep,' Metal Garurumon replied, 'Let's go!'

* * *

**Cerberumon's digivolving into Metal Garurumon may be unexpected, but it actually existed in the toy.**

**Anyway, we've almost come to the end, and damn, there's still only one reviewer out of the four followers, are they actually following the story?**

**And I'm still doing artworks for this 'book', but I don't think i'll upload them to my deviantART site unless otherwise requested, cause I don't think people actually cares.**

**And I won't blame any of you if you skipped this part**


	21. XXI: team assembled

Jetting through the air, heading back to the battlefield straight ahead, Metal Garurumon found that he had gained a complete control over his new power, just like when he first digivolved from Dobermon to Cerberumon, it didn't took him a single practice. Being merely Metal Garurumon's second flight, he could already balance himself fairly well while carrying Akio and Kin on his back.

'Any new cards, Akio?'

Reminded, the red head checked his card deck and found a few cards that had Metal Garurumon's picture printed.

'This seems to be nice.' Akio mumbled and slide the card along the track on the digivice.

'Garuru Burst.'

'What's it?' Metal Garurumon uttered as he felt something going on with him. First, it was his vision; it was like a translucent blue layer coated on his vision, with a lot of marking going on, the most obvious were the cross hairs locked on the three Diablomons. And then there was the sound of metal panels sliding, and his gatling gun's barrows started rotating.

'Guess you would like to get off me.' Said Metal Garurumon as he slowed down.

After he felt the weight of the two boys had gone, and ensured that they had really gone, he took off again.

Missiles were shot from all the launches as bullets were shot continuously from the three barrows of the gatling gun. The whole scene, which was filled with missiles and bullets, was missive, yet only the three Diablomons were hit. Everyone, included Metal Garurumon himself, was shocked by how accurate and destructive the attack was.

'We can hardly hurt one even when combined our forces.' Darkdramon gored, 'and you shot them to half death in just a minute.'

'Better equipments.' Metal Garurumon replied, 'Am I gonna take all the fun, or you guys would share some?'

Darkdramon smiled upon hearing Metal Garurumon's statement, then got his head back on his lance and waved it at the Diablomon that was closest to him. The well result of Metal Garurumon's attack didn't only weakened the three Diablomons, but also cheered up the team. With the aid of the encouraging atmosphere, the fight soon ended with the victory of the digi-destined and with the Diablomons' breaking down into bits of data.

But that was not the end of the event. With all the blasts in the battle, it was inevitable to set part of the woods on fire. It took not much effort, though, to put it out with the coroporation of the team.

'Feel like we're getting stronger and stronger.' Said Katsumi

'Looking good.' Reiko commented, also on Metal Garurumon

Moving both hands in front of the face, Metal Garurumon gasped a better understanding of his own outlook. 'I'm blue now. Wonder if that suits me.'

'Better than black,' said Akio, 'I quit like the shinny metallic blue. It's definitely better than to digivolve to Plutomon.'

'Yep, definitely better.' Metal Garurumon replied, 'so I do can choose my own mega form.'

'How was it like? Choosing a form?' asked Chessmon, 'I have never faced this. All the digivolvtion just seems so natural that I don't have to, or it's not up to me to choose.'

'Actually…' Metal Garurumon faced the ground, sunken in deep consideration and recalling the moment when he changed from Cerberumon to Metal Garurumon. 'I didn't think much of my mega form back then. I was just focusing on saving Akio, and before I knew, I can fly.'

'So it is not your choice after all.' Darkdramon added

'Never mind.' Metal Garurumon murmured

'We've got another problem.' WarGerymon pointed out, 'How are we gonna call you? Your name has got like six syllabuses.'

'Just give a nick name.' Katsumi suggested, 'like how Akio calls you 'dotty'.'

'How about just calling you 'Metal'?' Reiko asked Metal Garurumon, 'you know, the first word of your name.'

'Sounds dumb.' Akio commented

'Nah, it's quite good.' Said Metal Garurumon out of the blue, 'quite catchy too.'

'Catchy?' said Akio with wiry face

'I've made up my mind, Metal it is.' Said Metal Garurumon firmly

'Fine.' Akio sighed

* * *

The afternoon that had come to pass was boring as usual. Same as usual, the teens ate, chatted, and joked around. Though it seemed that the goal of reaching the Duke was already being forgotten, the team was still trying hard to figure a way out of the island.

There was one particular event in the afternoon that had gained the digi-destined hope again, however, when Akio received a message from Plaka. It was said that Whamon had fully recovered, though most of the digi-destined doubted that. They had seen Whamon's wound themselves, and by the judgment of WarGerymon, the most experienced in the team, it would take days for the whale digimon to recover, fully. It was only their second day on the island, when they actually counted, the illusion of being in the island for weeks was a strong one, since they were bored out of their minds.

Yet, the most encouraging part was the second half of the message, stating Whamon would go pick them up on the next day's night. In a sudden, the team had once more, the thought of accomplishing their goal.

'Can we make it in time?' asked Kin, 'we've got only five days left.'

'After calculating the ratio of our traveling time to the distance we've traveled,' Reiko informed, 'if Whamon really were going to pick us up tomorrow, we would make it just in time.'

'That is pleasing.' Said Akio, 'And there's nothing we can do?'

'Nothing.' WarGerymon answered.

* * *

Day 44

Morning, same beach, same food, same things to do, same boredom.

The team had got everything they needed on the beach, well, everything but entertainment, and so they decided to stay there. It wasn't everyone's decision, though. Being chosen as default leader, Akio made the choice of staying, as Whamon could come to them at any time, although it was said that the whale digimon would arrive at night, somewhere deep in the red head's heart feared that if the whale digimon came early and they were deep in the jungle exploring, they would miss their sole ride. The same concern occurred in Reiko's mind as well, and that was the reason for their disagreement of Katsumi and Kin's suggestion, being to explore deep down the cliff, just to kill time. They respected the leader's decision, any way.

Just when the repeating melody of the sea's wave almost drove everyone mad, what seemed to be impossible happened. There were strong waves on the sea surface, signaling that something big was approaching. Hopefully that would be Whamon. The water that had been waved up formed a wall that blocked the team's vision to assess to the approaching object. The anticipation, however, fell along with the water wall, as the shad of a long necked dinosaur like creature was revealed; undoubtedly that was UltimateBrakimon.

'Yet again?' Akio couldn't help spiting out the words, and once again he forgotten to care about Kin's feeling

UltimateBrakimon had no action yet, just rested along side the coast, while Jun jumped off from his back. The blonde girl stood there, looked down, hands griped the sides of her jeans; her tiny steps showed a tendency of stepping back.

'I'm leaving this to you.' Akio told Kin, 'Guys, back off.'

Silence fell next, with Kin walking slowly toward the blonde, while the girl just stayed at her spot fix. After a few step the blue haired boy started running, hiding no more his desire of seeing Jun, even though she might still be an enemy. Running fast, but to the boy, it still felt like the longest distance he had ever traveled.

* * *

'Is it right to leave him alone?' Reiko asked, 'She might be here to kill us, who knows what kind of twists are inside Plutomon's head?'

'Then why didn't you just run there and stop him?' Akio replied

The white haired girl simply sighed.

* * *

Upon reaching Jun, the first thing that came up in Kin's mind was- nothing. Every thing he did was as if an natural reaction. He pulled the blonde into a hug without thinking.

Jun, however, resisted, and struggled to get herself free from the blue haired boy.

'Let me go.' The blonde uttered

'No, not this time.' Kin uttered back. He had to take a whole lot of air to get ready for the next thing to be said. It was easy to show, but it unexpectedly took a lot of guts for the boy say it. 'I love you, Jun.'

'I don't worth it.' she whispered bitterly, with tears falling from her narrowed eyes, ran along her cheek and down to the boy's shirt, wetted it.

'That should be up for me to decide, and I say you definitely worth it.'

The little words did a great effort of convincing Jun as the blonde stopped resisting and rested her head on Kin's shoulder.

The action didn't last long though, as the couple moved their faces towards each other's direction, until their lips met, and then pressed gently.

* * *

'Can't believe we're taking a peek on them.' Commented Akio. Though being at far away from the blue haired boy and blonde girl, and from Akio's angle they seemed to be the size of the mini figures that came with some scaled models, he could still clearly see every movement of the couple.

'If you feel uncomfortable, you can just look away.' Reiko reminded him

'Just aren't they look cute?' Katsumi commented

'Our little Kin has finally became a man.' Darkdramon joked

The couple from far away had finally turned to the digi-destined, waved at them as a sign of calling them to go to them.

'Whamon isn't coming, am I right?' it was the first thing that Akio asked when he met with Jun.

'How did you…?' Jun asked back in surprise. She was not the only one that felt surprise towards Akio's conclusion.

'I see you've changed back to your old outfit,' said Akio, 'which is suppose to be stored in your home's closet. Meaning that you had been back to Plaka. And the rest of you being here to take Whamon's place was just my imagination.'

'Then your instinct is quite accurate.' Said UltimateBrakimon

'What happened, actually?' Kin asked

Jun's head down, concentrating deep in her memories.

'I was being brought to a mysterious place right after I stepped into Plutomon's portal,' she started, 'The place was like some kink of valley… Any way, I haven't seen him since then for days. He only left a message, said that I have to train get Triceramon's egg hatched and get him trained as soon as possible. There he set all that I need to train Triceramon. The progress was great…yet harsh…'

Looking at Jun, Kin could see all the wounds and scars that marked the harshness on the girl's body, though they were all healed and not visible now.

'But still Triceramon had digivolved from his in-training form to UlitmateBrakimon in just four days, and straight after that Plutomon contacted me again, and brought me to fight you. As you all know, I lost.'

'What next?' asked Katsumi, she really hesitated when she was about to ask the next question, 'what about… your parents?'

'That… was the strangest thing. I failed Plutomon's mission, yet he still brought them back to life. Today's morning he transported us back to Plaka; there they settled, and one more thing happened. Plutomon told me to help you, though I already intended to do so.'

'He wants to help us?' Darkdramon asked in exclamation

'I really don't know what he's up to.' Said Jun with a shrug

'But that's great, isn't it?' suggested Kin, 'I mean, Jun got her parents back, we can get out of this island and go get the Duke, and the full team's here again with all the digimons reached their final form.'

'Final form?' Jun mumbled, 'Oh! Cerberumon, you digivolved! What happened after I got dragged away?'

'Things went even crazier.' Said Metal, 'he sent three Diablomons for us, and nearly get Akio falls off the cliff…'

'And Kin too.' Akio added

The blonde's face darkened

'We're both fine now.' Kin comforted her

'I digivolved when I tried to save them.' Said Metal, 'And now my name's Metal.'

Jun giggled upon hearing the name, 'It's silly.'

'I think so!' Akio exclaimed. It's good to have some one share the same opinion with him though it wouldn't change any thing.

'So, should we go now?' asked Reiko, 'we don't have much time left.'

'Sure.' Akio replied

And so the digi-destined and their partnered digimons rode on Ultimatebrakimon, who was in his full size that had more than enough space on his back to carry all of them.

Now they took off to the final destinstion, the place that sat the Duke.


	22. XXII: the chilling destination

Day 48

'Can't sleep? Akio?' Jun asked

"Yeah, it's that sea sick thing. I'd quite gotten use to it, but some time, it just comes.' Akio replied, 'what about you?'

'Excited, I guess.' The blonde answered, 'it's all going to be over soon, in a few hours.'

'Everything ends peacefully.' Akio murmured, 'why does it feel so odd to just end it this way?' Recalling all the fights and dangers they had been through, it just didn't feel right to finish the journey without a fight, though it should be better with no more dangers.

Putting the though away, the red head moved his sight to Jun's lower body, where Kin's head lay on her thigh, with the girl's hand rest on his blue hair.

'I seldom see him sleeps.' Said Jun, 'he always puts me in sleep first.'

'You two are just too… cute.' Said Akio with a giggle

Jun smiled shyly in respond, but the smile faded as the girl spoke again.

'Oh! There's something I forgotten to tell you.'

A puzzled look appeared on the red head's face

'Plutomon mentioned you, he told me to especially put you in danger. Of course, I failed.'

'Maybe he wants to get Cerberumon to digivolve?' Akio uttered, 'But why?'

'Same question to him requesting me to return.' Said Jun with a yawn, 'Good night, you should get some sleep too.'

* * *

Dawn came, and the digi-destined had finally reached the ice land of the north. Ultimatebrakimon parked himself as his passengers got off him and landed. Jun altered something with her digivice and minimized Ultimatebrakimon.

'Guess we'll have to get in the palace and reach the very front of the Duke so that he will count us as succeeded.' Metal suggested, looking at the distant ice palace

'We've about an hour until the exact time is reached.' DotAgumon informed them, 'Better get going now. That guy is very picky, especially about time.'

Without further ado, towards the palace the team went. Though the palace seemed far away from the spot where the digi-destined landed, it was actually a fairly short trip to travel there. In less than an hour the front gate was in sight, and could be judged that it was just about ten meters from the team, meaning that they could definitely be in time. With great hope everyone speeded up, and saw what was expected yet unwanted- the figure of Plutomon.

Though the appearing of the black digimon was a letdown, the tiny ray of hope that had reflected was that Plutomon was taking no action.

'What do you want?' Akio shouted at Plutomon,

'Why did you hindered us but then helps us to get here?' Katsumi added

Plutomon's respond was a sinister smirk on the demon face. 'I have no intention telling you the truth.'

'Of course we know that.' Said Darkdramon

'You know what? Just ignore him and get going.' DotAgumon suggested, and the team followed.

'It's not the right time to go!' Plutomon changed from the standard standing pose to the combat-readied pose.

All six digimons from the digi-destined team stepped forward at arms.

'Stay back.' Metal told the human

'And don't need save any cards,' said WarGerymon, 'use them all you want, this is going to be the final battle anyway.'

'It's six against one, you can't win.' Warned Chessmon

'If I can delay you just by talking, I am very willing to do so.' Said Plutomon, 'but I don't think this is possible.'

'Of course not!' shouted Metal as he fired his galting gun.

Although it was the first time to meet Metal, Plutomon's reaction was fast, and more then enough to dodge the gunshots. Sifted to his left, where stood WarGerymon and HiAndromon, both prepared for Plutomon's coming, and attacked upon seeing the approach of the black mega. Plutomon didn't dodge, but blocked WarGerymon's slash by one arm, the other arm grabbed the speeding forearm of HiAndromon, then swung them at Metal one by one.

With wings equipped, WatGerymon still found it hard to get free from Plutomon's swinging force. Yet, he managed to do so. The same luck didn't go with HiAndromon, however, as the robotic digimon was equipped with no flight tect, and could only be caught by Metal, which decreased both digimons' mobility.

'Speed plug-in B. (x2)'

Darkdramon and Chessmon, both enhanced their speeds, dashed towards Plutomon from two sides.

'With great speed just come great trouble.' Plutomon uttered as he simply took a step back.

There's not enough time to stop, Darkdramon and Chessmon collided, and fell.

'How come all of you got beaten up before I took any real action?'

'Metal Storm.'

'Ultimate Blast.'

Once again, Metal fired the galting gun. The three barrels rotated at high speed while tens of millions of glowing blue energy bullets flew out of them. Plutomon leaped backwards again and again, each time the bullets landed on the ground just right front of his toe. The firing of the galting gun leaded Plutomon to the edge of the ice land, behind him was the freezing water of the ocean.

Ultimatebrakimon, on the other hand, had done all the preparation for his Ultimate Blast, with all his cannons and weaponries activated, all aimed at Plutomon.

'Fire.' Jun ordered, surprisingly cold

Simultaneously, beams, cannonballs, bullets, missiles, all sort of them were jetting towards Plutomon, who didn't even take a move, just stood there, calmly waved his hand to create a portal which swallowed all the attacks from Ultimatebrakimon. Then came another wave, as another portal opened in the sky, with all the previous attacks from the armored Dinosaur falling at the digi-destined like rains.

'I think you two should quit this fight.' Darkdramon told Jun and Ultimatebrakimon

'Jun!' Ultimatebrakimon called out. The blonde girl immediately understood the plan in her partner's head, though unwanted; she believed that was the only way to protect the team.

She first returned Ultimatebrakimon to his original size, which was large enough to shield the entire team, and then she pull out all her cards, and kept enhancing her partner with the defense plug-in.

Having Ultimatebrakimon shielding, the ground still shook wildly, while cracks appeared on the ice's surface. The attack continued for minutes, until all the sounds of explosions were gone, and Ultimatebrakimon felt no more impact from his own launched attacks.

'You used up all your firepower at once!?' asked WarGerymon

'Probably,' Ultimatebrakimon replied, 'less painful than I expected.'

'It's because I used up all the defense staffs for you.' Said Jun as she diminished her partner again.

'I should really step aside, need time load myself up.'

Plutomon was standing at the exact same point that he was forced to go by Metal's gunshots, having his arms folded and stood straight; a evil smile on his face as if he was enjoying watching the digi-destined being attacked by their own fire. The whole act was obviously a taunting, one that worked well.

The remaining five surrounded Plutomon immediately, and charged at once. Impressive as it seemed, Plutomon didn't even have the slightest bit of panic; when outnumbered, the strategy was always the same: to take out your foes one by one.

The first one in coming was Darkdramon, jetting with the lance pointed at Plutomon, who ducked down, dodged the stab as well struck the abs of the blue dragon with the elbow, sent Darkdramon stumble a few feet back. As Plutomon swung himself turning back, he kicked the head of WarGerymon, who was just approaching Plutomon's back, as if the black mega could foresee the yellow dragon warrior's coming. Straight after WarGerymon fell with his head smacked on the ice ground, Plutomon covered himself with his cape, which shielded him from the galting gunshots from Metal, and approaching him fast while blocking his bullets away.

'Grab the chance.' Akio whispered

Katsumi and Reiko nodded toward the remind

However furious the attack of Metal was, Plutomon still managed to approach him, and just when the distance between the two was shorten to its limit, in which Plutomon was about to take down the newest mega of the team, the hammer of Chessmon struck. As predicted, Plutomon turned in time to catch the hammer.

With accurate aiming and complete time control, HiAndromon from a distance shot his energy blast at the gap of Plutomon's cape, which should be completely sealed but shown a gap in the spit second when he turned to Chessmon.

The plan was a success as the explosion force of HiAndromon's blast was trapped in between Plutomon's body and his cape, and had done great damage to Plutomon.

'Impressive.' Uttered Plutomon

'Things would have been different had I not turned my digivice silent.' Said Reiko, 'otherwise you would have known I used extra power boosts for Andromon.'

'Guys, lets go now.' Akio suggested, 'we've got enough time being wasted.'

'And there'll be more,' Plutomon added with a dark smirk that suggested anything but goodness, 'have you all forgotten that we standing on a giant piece of ice?'

The cracking noise of the ice ground was getting louder as the cracks thickened; Jun shouted for everyone to ride on Ultimatebrakimon, knowing that the ground they were standing was to be broken in pieces of floating ices. Almost all of them could get on the dino in time. Unfortunately, Katsumi was trapped on a rather remote floating ice along with the worse nightmare- Plutomon.

'I'll go get her.' Said Metal as he activated his thrusters and jetted towards the black haired girl

'Count me in.' Darkdramon flew at the same direction as well

Within seconds Metal landed in front of Katsumi, who was confronting Plutomon.

'Let's get out of here.' The heavy armed Garurumon carried Katsumi as he turned his back on Plutomon and was about to take off, only to have one of the thrusters being busted by the blast from the black mega. Luckily he had just taken off and didn't accelerated too much, otherwise he would hit the ground hard, and badly hurt the girl he was carrying.

'I won't go easy with you.' Plutomon slowly approaching the fallen Metal

'Dark roar.' Darkdramon's energy bullets fell on Plutomon's head like rain, like how Plutomon treated them earlier. Before the black mega could react, he flew toward Metal and took Katsumi. 'I got it here.'

The two mega exchanged looks, ended with the nod of Metal. Darkdramon then carried Katsumi back to Ultimatebrakimon, while Metal stayed facing Plutomon.

'You just won't leave us alone.'

'Not when the right time has come.'

'Right time?'

'Have I said too much?' Using the portal ability, Plutomon transported himself to the very front of Metal in a blink. The distance between the two was so close that Metal could properly aim his weaponries at Plutomon. And he had his galting gun arm being blocked out before he knew it, then a kick on his claw arm that sent him off his balance, straightly followed by another kick on the knee that sent Metal fell on his knees completely.

'I remember you being stronger,' Plutomon grabbed the shoulder cannon of Metal and lifted him up by it. 'I'm kinda disappointed, to be honest; I have higher expectation on you.' And then he threw him hardly on the ground that even the thick ice they were standing was cracked.

'What is running in your freaken mind, any way?'

Plutomon didn't answer, simply walked towards Metal. 'Stand and fight like the last time we met!'

'Never!' Metal replied determinedly, which earned him another hit.

'Why is my other self so weak?' Plutomon sighed as he gave more cracks on the already cracked armor of Metal Garurumon.

The following was a one sided battle; Metal endured all the attack, yet couldn't find a slight chance to point any of his guns at Plutomon. Finally, as if Plutomon had gotten tired, there's a gap between the continuous assaults that enabled Metal to jerk back from the demonic mega. He knew that the gap would only last for seconds, and so he fired without the most precise aiming, just fired rapidly along the trace of Plutomon, no matter he ran, or playing his teleport trick, the barrels just stick with the shade of Plutomon. After the galting gun was out of bullets was the time for the shoulder, then followed by each of the missile ports one by one.

Though expected, Plutomon's only getting a few shots was utterly impressive, and even his enemies couldn't help having the appreciation for him.

By the time the ammos were all used up, Ultimatebrakimon had moved to a spot close enough for Metal to jump on him, and metal did so without a single doubt. Once again, Plutomon acted wired; he merely stood fix on where he was, given up pursuiting them.

The digi-destined really couldn't care less; they had been delayed for long enough, and now they were in real hurry. Even if they could finish Plutomon once and for all, if he was not chasing after them, they would not go back fight him; that would only waste more time.

* * *

Very soon the digi-destined landed again, and at a closer look, the ice palace was nothing but massive, and elegance. It's surface nicely polished, shiny and reflective and clear; two columns made up the sides of the place, and extended to the clouds, which had covered the rooftop of the building. Countless steps of staircase placed between the two columns, led to the front door, which had mysterious curvy patterns sculpted on it with very detailed works.

'Home, sweet home.' Mumbled dotAgumon

'A large home.' Akio added mindlessly with his widened eyes fixing on the palace's greatness

'Well, we had massive member.'

The interior of the place was lit up brightly by the sunlight that shore into the ice walls and refracted in a beautiful manner that made the walls like glowing. A long corridor extended its way from the entrance all the way to the main hall. There were pictures sculpted on the two sidewalls in an ancient drawing style, like something that one would expect to find in a ruin. According to WarGerymon, part of them recorded historical events, while others were still important but not that much historically remembered. The floor was flat and sloppy, and most of the digi-destined had experienced their slips during their rushing to the main hall.

The corridor way was not as exhausting as the staircases that were placed in front of the front door, fortunately.

The main hall was similar to the cave of Blastmon, only it was much cleaner, much brighter, and had a whole lot more space. Not to mention the absent of the almost annoying existence of the countless Gaossmons and Gotsumons. There the Duke was, sitting on his throne that was placed in the middle of the far end wall, with his halberd holding up erectly on his side.

'A total of three weeks and forty-two minutes. You're late.' Said the Duke coldly as the shapes of the knights walked out from the exit next to the grand knight digimon.

* * *

**So... yeah, the next chapter will be the final... of book 1. And since this is book 1, there will be a book 2.**


	23. XIII: Finale

Behind the cold and plain voice, under the menacing helmet, Akio imagined a smirk on the Duke's face. It was like back to the old times, when the red head rarely got a better grade than Reiko, he would be saying comforting things, but deep down his heart was like yelling for his accomplishment, and laughing at her.

If that really was the case right now, then the Duke surely had the mentality of a child.

Silence fell, as if the air in the place stopped moving as the eleven royal knights showed themselves one by one, formed a tidy squat next to the Duke. There were the black-armored and the blue-caped Alphamon; Craniamon with his purplish standard knight style armor and the duo-headed Duo Solar Spear and the Omni shield; Crusadermon, the pink and the skinny, with floppy blades on his body; the white armored dragon looking Dynasmon; Gankoomon the bulk; Jesmon and UlforceVeedramon, the white and blue dragon bladers; the slim and cat-looking elegant Leopardmon; Magnamon, the golden and the shiniest; the six-legged crimson horse Kentaurosmon; and finally, Examon, the giant crimson dragon that occupied almost half the space of the hall.

'We don't stand a chance.' Reiko murmured, her voice steady, frozen by the pressure given out from the knights.

'No chances, indeed.' Said the Duke; he could obviously hear Reiko's words, however small her voice was. 'So I suggest you go home. This is never your fight, anyway.'

'Home?' asked Akio sarcastically, 'How can we go home when you have destroyed it? This will always be our fight; we'll fight to protect our home.'

'Not mine… actually.' Said WarGerymon at the moment when the atmosphere of the digi-destined was the most encouraging, and he just ruined the whole climax. 'I have to keep my words.'

It was an understandable move and the team knew it, further more, even if they didn't, they really couldn't have much hate on him. As the leader and the representative of the digi-destined, Akio simply nodded to WarGerymon, which made him felt much better, though the guilt was still in his heart. With no choices, WarGerymon walked slowly to the Duke's side, and with that the thirteen royal knights were united once again, although some among them looked different now.

'Up the balcony you go, and the witness of this battle you shall be.' The Duke ordered the yellow dragon warrior, for he knew well even though WarGerymon would keep his promise and be on his side, he was still linked with the digi-destined, and in battle, willingly or not, he would be the one that endangered the knight team.

'Are we really going to do this?' the Duke asked the digi-destined once more, 'you'd better return to where you should be belonging to.'

'Yeah, we'll be there, after we've kicked you ass so bad.' Claimed Metal

'Obviously we have different understanding about where humans and digimons belongs to.' Sighed the Duke as he stood up from his seat and hit the ground hardly with the stick-end of his halberd. And the knights behind him took their actions, readied for battle at any moment when they received the commend from their leader.

As if the hitting on the ground was a trigger, a portal appeared; the glowing purple whirlpool hangs parallel at the side of where between the Duke and the digi-destined. The breezing sound of whirlwind marked the beginning of the battle.

'We can't let pass through it.' said Jun

'Not until the other side gets ready.' Reiko added

'What?' the blonde whispered in question

Examon jetted up, against the gravity and accelerated all the way up, broke the rooftop and extended his wings fully, with a roar that echoed for seconds. Down on the floor, after dodging from the falling pieces of the rooftop, the digi-destined turned their attention to the red dragon high on above, and as high Examon's position was, his enormous crimson wings were clearly visible. And then the wings were folded, as Examon turned, facing the way of the portal and jetted towards it at full speed with the aid of the gravity.

'Hold him!' Akio shouted

Ultimatebrakimon, the only digimon that his size could match up with Examon's, ran towards the portal and made it there before Examon could. In front of the portal the armored dinosaur stood, counting in his heart for the right moment to make his move.

_Three__…__ two__…_ counted Ultimatebrakimon as Examon was getting closer and closer right in front of him, _one!_ He made a 180-degree turn to the right, swung his tail, which its end was armed with an axe-blade and hit Examon hard as he could. The gigantic crimson dragon was slammed to the ground that stood the knights, lucky for the knights but unfortunate for the digi-destined, the fall of Examon didn't do damage to all of the knights, as four of them were already out battling with the remaining four digi-destined digimons.

Reiko and Akio exchanged a look, and then Akio nodded to her.

The white haired girl then grabbed Jun on the arm, called for HiAndromon and ran towards where Ultimatebrakimon was. Dynnasmon, who was having a even fight with HiAndromon, intended to chase after his opponent's apparent fleeing, only to have his way blocked by the additional galting shots from Metal.

'What's going on?' asked Jun while on their way to her partner

'To get the other side ready,' Reiko replied quickly, 'for the rest, I'll explain later. Now hurry, we must be at there before anyone.'

So they rode on Ultimatebrakimon, while HiAndromon was still on the ground, shooting at every enemy who attempted to chase the girls. As the portal was just right next to Ultimatebrakimon, soon as the girls had settled, he walked straight into the portal and within a blink, they were back to the city of Bifrost.

As Reiko expected, the police had already getting on to evacuating the citizens of the location, which in a closer look, was the same place that had suffered from Millenniummon's attack, and thank goodness that the rebuilt hadn't even started, otherwise the workers would have to work all over again after this battle.

It seemed that the local police had learnt their lesson, being that they had started evacuating the citizens once the portal appeared, only that they weren't in much efficiency, and Reiko decided to give them a push.

'Flip out all the guns, cannons, launches… whatever weaponries you've got.' The white haired girl instructed

'What are we doing, actually?' Jun asked, but still followed Reiko's order

'To clear up this area,' replied Reiko, 'by scaring all the people off here. Now just roar and try to be menacing.' She told Ultimatebrakimon

The extra threat worked significantly, as more scream could be heard from down the street and the running people were getting more crowded. HiAndromon soon arrived, and on Reiko's request he scanned the surroundings completely, made sure that the only living being in the area were but them.

The light from the portal grown darker, meaning that there was someone passing through. The gigantic shadow was easily recognizable, and while it was still a dark shade Ultimatebrakimon was already on his move. Once again slammed Examon with his tail; the red dragon withstood a bit, this time, but as he tried to flop his wings and regain balance, he was crashed into a tall building. In the smoke that was created by the crashing, Examon could be seen laying on tons of broken pieces of the building.

It was when Reiko received Akio's call, told to do the least damage to the city.

'Sorry.' Ultimatebrakimon mumbled

'Never mind now.' Akio groaned on the other side

Examon was trying to get up, but he was slow. Ultimatebrakimon seized the chance, aimed all the weaponries on him, and fired simultaneously after Jun charged them up with extra power boosts.

The scene was epically gorgeous as one explosion came after another. It was like being in Michael Bay's films, as Reiko commented.

* * *

Chessmon held her hammer with both hands, and hit it on Craniamon continuously after ducked the spear strike from him. She didn't hit him with the side ends of the hammer, but rather used it like a lance, kept on hitting Craniamon's shield with the heavy weapon. Even being a digimon so good in defense, Craniamon couldn't help stepping back when the impacts came. There Chessmon saw the chance, she thrown her hammer on the ground, used both arms to support her weight as she flipped herself and had both feet kicked on one end of the Duo Solar Spear, knocked it off from the knight's hand and then landed and grabbed back the hammer.

It seemed that the royal knights were not as tough as they had expected.

Darkdramon was starting to get annoyed, so many times he stabbed at Leopardmon, none could hit the target. Once they called the digimons that were brought back to life zombies, and far as he knew, zombies were not this smart that Leopardmon seemed to be taunting him.

'Speed plug-in B.'

Now with greater speed, Darkdramon could at least keep up with the movement of Leopardmon. To the least degree, his attacks didn't miss anymore, though Leopardmon had blocked each and every single one of them.

Once again, Leopardmon blocked Darkdramon's lance with his left forearm, and then blocked Darkdramon's left fist with his right forearm. Once both of Darkdramon's arms were out of the way, he stabbed his sting sword on Darkdramon's chest. Fortunately, the chest armor of Darkdramon was hard enough to withstand the stab and it didn't do a lot of damage to Darkdramon, it still sent him stumbled back, but to Darkdramon it was actually a good thing to have some distance with Leopardmon.

'Dark Roar.'

Using the lance like an arm cannon, Darkdramon shot a couple shots of dark energy at Leopardmon, which, as expected, were all being dodged. Leopardmon was approaching in high speed, and Darkdramon was not in the mood of getting close with him so soon, knowing that he stood no nearly chance in close combat. He opened his wings and flopped it hard while running towards Leopardmon, it was just in time that he left the ground when the two approached; Darkdramon took an extra step on Leopardmon's shoulder, and did a midair rotation and at the instant when he faced the back of the knight, he fired. The dark energy struck right on Leopardmon and the knight was down; Darkdramon was crashed hard on the ground duo to the reaction force of his firing, but he recovered soon enough.

After he stood up, he saw the remaining royal knights digimons that weren't in the battle were walking towards the portal, some had even already passed it. He aimed at them, and at the moment when he was to fire, something struck his back and he fell. It was Leopardmon; Darkdramon could tell it before turning to face him, and after he did it, all he saw was Leopardmon and his sword at ready.

Then from the left side of Leopardmon came a thick blue beam that hit the knight and sent him away from Darkdramon.

'I see you need some help.' Metal said to Darkdramon, right before he earned an arrow from the Kentaurosmon that had been fighting with him. The energy arrow couldn't stung its way into Metal's armor, but the force was so great that it made him stumbled for a few step to regain his balance.

'Just mind your own business.' Darkdramon uttered

'That's how you talk to someone who saved you?' said Metal as he used his galting gun to shield him from the kick from Kentaurosmon. Due to the fact that Kentaurosmon has two sets of back legs for support, he could kick with his two front legs for a whole day long and eventually Metal Garurumon couldn't withstand and was kicked to where Akio was, fortunately he didn't crashed on his buddy.

'How's the other side doing?' Metal asked Akio, who was keeping contact with Reiko on the other side.

'Not good,' the red head answered, 'they've got more and more incoming, they need supports.' When he finished, he saw Kentaturosmon, as well as Leopardmon and a few remaining members of the royal knights ran passed the portal. The only remaining knights were WarGerymon, the Duke, and the Craniamon that Chessmon was having a hard time with.

'Go to help the other side!' Akio shouted to Kin and Katsumi, and their digimon partners, 'we'll handle what's left here!'

'Got it.' Kin answered, but Katsumi was in the middle of trouble.

'I may need some help.'

Chessmon hit her hammer heavily on Craniamon, sent him a few step back; she then tried to get to the portal, yet, Craniamon thrown his shield at Chessmon and knocked her off.

'He just won't let go!' Katsumi groaned in anger.

Darkdramon flew at high speed towards the speared knight just when he picked his shield back up. Craniamon reflectively held up the shield in an attempt to block the dark-blue dragon; the result was a collision where both crashed into the ice wall.

'Your turn.' Darkdramon said to Metal as he moved right, cleared a path for Metal to aim straight at Craniamon, while leaving the purple knight in the center of the cracks on the wall.

'Eat this!' the barrels of Metal's gatling gun started to rotate, it spinned so fast that all one could see was a blur. The speeding bullets lighted up the path as they jetted their ways towards Craniamon and clashed themselves into the knight's purple armor.

'This should be enough.' The firing stopped after a few minutes. Kin, Darkdramon, Katsumi and Chessmon had already used the chance to go to help with the city's situation.

Craniamon's smoking armor's cracks became thinner and thinner and was eventually gone.

'I knew it would happen.' Akio mumbled

'Do I rip his core out?' Metal asked as the recovered purple knight was approaching them step by step.

'No. It would take much work. Besides, you lost control last time after you did that to Boltmon.'

'Any plan?'

'Haven't got one, maybe bury him?'

'I've got a better idea,' said Metal Garurumon. Craniamon was merely steps away from him and the knight was to wave his spear and slash Metal, Metal pointed his gun at the Duke and fired instead of dodging Craniamon. The attack, of course, was being dodged. However, in the second when Duke reacted upon the attack, Craniamo was frozen, like a sudden blue screen on the computer.

'I should have guessed it earlier.' Uttered Metal, 'You were multi-tasking, controlling all of them at once.' That explained the Duke's sudden lost of focus led to the stopping of Craniamon, and maybe even all the other knights on the other side.

'I can still switch them into auto mode.' Said the Duke

'You won't have time to do so.' Said Metal as he glanced back at Akio, who nodded and pulled some cards out in respond.

'I've always been wanting to try this.' Said Akio as he used three speed plug-in at the same time.

Metal disappeared, he had become something less than a blur, just a flash of a few blue linings of his body's color and the orange of the thrusters' emitted gas.

For a while the Duke was completely outmatched by Metal, MedievalDukemon was like being beaten by the air surrounding him. For that moment, Akio really thought they would win, until Metal failed to continue processing the enhanced speed and crashed onto the floor, powerless to get up.

'You really think that would do much to me?' said the Duke. Slowly he approached Metal while wiping the dust off his cape.

Craniamon regained his movement, but then stood still.

'I won't do you injustice,' said MedievalDukemon, 'How about a one-on-one battle?'

'Including the other side?' Akio glared at the Duke

'Well, they have their own business to care.' It was a disappointing yet expectable answer.

* * *

The ten so-called royal knights digimons they had been fighting had stopped their movement for a minutes or so.

The digi-destined in Bifrost had no idea what was going on. The connection between Reiko and Akio's digivices had been broken since Kin and Katsumi arrived. For now, they could only hope that Akio and Metal had found a way to stop them once and for all.

But as usual, good fortune didn't last long as the knights moved again.

'Every time when I have faith in him.' Sighed the white haired girl.

HiAndromon was handling Magnamon, Jesmon and Dynasmon at the same time. He was fighting Dynasmon and Magnamon fist-to-fist in the first place, when Jesmon jammed into the battle with the attempt to stab the robotic digimon with his arm blades. HiAndromon dodged the attacked from his left, then grabbed the Magnamon from his right and smacked him onto Jesmon, the two knights fell aside, and Dynasmon punched HiAndromon on the stomach when he had taken cared of the two knights and wasn't prepared. HiAndromon could do nothing but to endure the punch, and then came a kick when he was trying to regain balance and it made him fell completely.

Without wasting a second to stand, HiAndromon raised his hand up and fired an energy pulse from the palm. It took the humanoid dragon knight down in surprise, for Dynasmon had zero knowledge about HiAndromon's having any long ranged weapons. The energy pulse hit Dynasmon in the face and he immediately covered it with both hands after being shot.

That gave HiAndromon just enough time to turn his focus on Magnsmon and Jesmon. They attacked from the left and right sides of HiAndromon; Jesmon had his arm blades crossed at his chest-level while Magnamon fired a giant light beam from every shining parts of his golden armor.

'Defense plug-in C.' before anything happened, before the beam went half its way to the robotic digimon, Reiko took her action.

HiAndromon leaned forward to dodge the beam of Magnamon, he partly succeeded, as the beam still burned his back. Having no time to respond to the pain, HiAndromon get back up and blocked Jesmon's blades with his forearms. Sensing Magnamon coming from behind, HiAndromon pulled his right elbow backwards and hit the ultimate. Though hadn't seen it himself, Magnamon was believed to have been hit in the face and stumbled back.

Nonetheless, with one forearm left to block the blades, Jesmon gained his advantage and sliced the blades through the armored left forearm of HiAndeomon, leaving a deep crack on it in which fuels spilled out from it.  
The knights' striking back hadn't end this soon, as the recovered Dynasmon rocketed his way towards HiAndromon, grabbed him by the head and smacked it hardly on a building, as if saying 'This is what you get for massing with my face!' HiAndromon was then thrown to the street, before he hit the ground, Magnamon's Magna Blaster hit him and sent him flying towards Jesmon's direction, where Jesmon had his blades at ready.

'No..' Reiko whispered in despair, finding her eyes watered by tears.

Darkdramon wasn't having a merry time either. He was dealing with UlforceVeedramon, who was a very similar digimon with him; the only different was that the knight was so much stronger. For all the times when UlforceVeedramon's blade and Darkdramon's lance collided, even if Darkdramon could block the edge, the sheer force of UlforceVeedramon kept driving him backwards. Before he was being pushed to a dead end, he flew up, hoping to reverse the situation. Yet, soon as he took off, the whip blades of Crusademon stabbed through Darkdramon's wings; then the pinkish knight swung the blades and slammed Darkdramon on the ground.

The only good thing was that he now was back to the open street, not the dead end.

The dark blue dragon stood up, baring the pain on his wings and rushed towards Crusademon; the pink knight was much less stronger, which made him a much easier enemy to fight with. Darkdramon stung Crusademon with the lance, which stabbed through his shield as Crusademon abandoned it, sprang back but had a thin leg grabbed by Darkdramon and was swung to crash onto a hard wall.

On he went and when he was about to give the pink knight a decisive blow, something hit Darkdramon by the side and burned his armor. Quickly he turned to find the attacker; it was Kentaurosmon, and he ran off to the side soon after he was being seen. Darkdramon held up his lance/arm-cannon to take aim; three shots he fired, none hit its target. He wanted to take another aim, but then came UlforceVeedramon from the right; Darkdramon reflexively held up his lance as a shield. What was unexpected was that UlforceVeedramon used his unoccupied left fist to punch Darkdramon on the face. What a dirty move!

Darkdramon spun back as a few more of Kentaurosmon's energy arrows shot him in the waist. He fell, and was surrounded by UlforceVeedramon and Crusademon.

'We'll have to try this.' Jun said to Ultimatebrakimon; they were at quite a distant from Kin and Darkdramon. Seeing that the boy and his partner were in serious trouble, the blonde girl requested to help them, while Ultimatebrakimon remained her that they were too, in serious trouble with Examon and Gankoomon.

'If you insist.' That's how Ultimatebrakimon replied to Jun as he used the axe on the tail to stab Examon and fixed him in a position. He then aimed a cannon to the crowd of UlforceVeedramon and Crusademon; the chance of missing them and hit Darkdramon instead was there, but without a doubt he fired, and a second later he saw UlforceVeedramon had already been blasted away. Darkdramon could now focus on Kentaurosmon and Crusademon.

Chessmon and HiAndromon were surrounded, though not being completely beaten up, the knights had the upper hand. On the other hand, Katsumi and Reiko were running out of cards for recovery, if the battle was to last, their partners would lose the constant healing and probably be dead after getting a few hits from the knights.

And for God's sake that wasn't what troubled Reiko the most. Far away she saw a girl, probably ten years younger than her; the girl was hiding stealthily, scared, and most possibly avoided HiAndromon's scanning.

'I should have double checked the scan.' Reiko mumbled as she rushed towards the girl. Very soon she reached her, and as she guessed, that girl was scared out of her mind.

'It's gonna be alright, I'll get you out of here.' She placed her hands on the girl's shoulder and comforted her. 'Trust me, okay?' She looked into her frightened eyes.

The girl nodded, and so Reiko helped her stand up. They were to get out of the place, when Magnamon's Magna Blast missed its target and hit the high level of the building next to the two girls; chunks of bricks fell down, and neither Chessmon nor HiAndromon were free to reach them in time. It seemed that all hopa had gone, for that moment, the white haired girl cried out in despair. 'Akio! Help!'

They were saved, however, not by her partner digimonnor by the boy she'd dreamed of. Looked up, she saw a Justimon, with a police badge.

'How can we police do less than you kids?' said he as more of his kind, as well as other common 'police digimons' charged into battle.

Katsumi ran towards Reiko, offered a hand to help her, as well as the girl she was carrying to stand up.

'Did you just called for Akio?' she asked

'What!?' for the first time, Reiko's face turned red. 'Let's get this girl to safety first!'

* * *

One more wave, as Metal ducked down, his shoulder cannon was sliced in half. That was the second weapon that was destroyed; the first was his gatling gun; he had to detach it or the Duke would chop Metal's arm along with it.

He was kicked onto the wall. In the next moment, all he saw was the swinging axe coming towards him. Right he turned, dodged the attack, then fired two missiles from his left shoulder. He couldn't believe what happened next, however, as the Duke sliced the two missiles in half.

'He can even do that!?' Metal exclaimed as he watch the missiles exploded behind the Duke.

The range between the axe-end of the halberd and MedievalDukemon himself was unreachable, and the only long ranged attack, the missiles, were proven to be useless. Facing the Duke's continuous axe swing, Metal could but step back, until there was no more place to be back off. To take the risk to dodge the attack while charged towards the Duke seemed to be the sole option. Metal succeeded in doing so with some luck. Soon as their distant was shortened, Metal Garurumon punched him on the diaphragm; the Duke stumbled back, grabbing the chance Metal rushed towards the Duke to give more punches, only to have his fists grabbed and his arm twisted, and MedievalDukemon's action was so fast and smooth that Akio could quite follow it and the next thing he knew was that Metal was on the ground next to him. The Duke was approaching while rising up his axe, probably wanted to chop off some parts of Metal.

All of a sudden Akio felt brave, and he ran to his partner's front, blocking the Duke's way.

'Get out.' MedievalDukemon never slowed down

'You've won.' Said Akio, 'do you really have to kill?'

'One last chance.' The Duke stopped right in front of Akio

'No.'

The axe dropped, on Metal Garurumon's shoulder armor, stuck in there. WarGerymon was fast enough to fly Akio out of the way. Metal garbed the Duke tightly and slowly walked a few steps towards him until there was no distant between the two. Then without any doubt or hesitation, he detonated all the missiles that were still in his missile launchers.

WarGerymon covered Akio in order to protect him.

* * *

Each and every time when they fell, they rose back up; this seemed to be the spirit that a knight carries. Yet, probably no one in the scene appreciated it. They just wished the royal knights could stay down forever. Just nine humanoid digimons and an oversize dragon, with bodies that one could hardly harm; together they had ruined a big part of the city.

Worse, there were only a few digimons left to fight them; the digi-destined were already exhausted and couldn't go on, and half of the police's digimons were down too. Soon there would have nothing to stand in the knights' way of bringing destruction upon the city.

* * *

The Duke was kneeling on one knee, using his left hand to help support his weight. His armor was cracked, some parts were even broken; the cape was scattered, and on top of all, there's a layer of burnt-black color spraying over him.

Metal was in a much worse situation; the armor parts that were near to the missile ports were gone, revealing the flesh-not much damaged- thanks to the protection that the now gone armors had provided. The other parts of the armor were covered in ash-black. And yet, that wasn't the worst part, the worst thing happened was that Metal Garurumon had passed out.

MedievalDukumon managed to get up on his feet with a few struggles; his body shook, and the footsteps were unstable. The effect of the explosion was evidently powerful; and if the explosion wasn't enough to bring the Duke down, the next attack from his back surely did.

Violet light glowed along with the sound of the stretching gale. There was a pinch black arm cut through the Duke's chest; the sharp nails were grabbing a pure glowing light-blue sphere- the digi-core MedievalDukemon.

Then the arm was pulled back. The Duke fell, revealing the black figure standing behind him.

WarGerymon and Akio looked at Plutomon in widened eyes.

* * *

This was the second time when the royal knights dropped their actions in an instant. Then again, like being rebooted, they came back to life again instead of just standing like status. Only this time, they didn't continue their attacks, but headed but to the portal that was still connecting to the ice palace.

'We'll go see what happened, you guys stay here and help the citizens.' Reiko said to the cop that had once arrested them.

'I'll need a report for this.' Said the cop

'You will think I'm writing fiction.' the white haired girl replied, and with that the digi-destined went pass the portal and returned to the digital world. The portal closed once they were finished.

There they saw the eleven knights, and Plutomon standing in front of them, holding something like an orb in his hand. The Duke was lying dead under Plutomon.

'What's going on here?' Katsumi asked Akio, who was also confused.

'What's all this!?' Jun shouted at Plutomon, same as always, she lost control over her emotion when seeing the black villain. 'And where's the egg?'

'Here.' Said Plutomon, showing off the Duke's digi-core on his hand, 'he fused it with himself, to gain a complete control over the knights. It took him years to complete the progress.'

'So it's never a bet.' said WarGerymon grimly, 'It's just because he's not ready.'

'And what's your plan?' asked Akio, 'Don't you really think that we can't notice anything odd.'

'On the contrary,' Plutomon began, sounding like a megalomaniac, 'I think it was pretty clear.' He looked around, only to see the puzzled faces of the digi-destined. It was disappointingm but he had gotten use to it. 'I trained you to weaken the Duke so that I can have a chance finishing him off. I must say that it didn't work out as how I expected, it's kinda disappointing to see the Duke got the upper hand in the battle, just like how disappointing I am to see you're all confused and puzzled now.'

'But what're you gonna use them for?' asked Kin, 'to conquer the worlds or some old fashioned wicked of this sort?'

'It's not for you to know.' A portal opened behind the knights as they stepped inside. 'I've given you the peace you want, and I've got what I want now. We should not trouble each other anymore, to thank that you've help me gain my army, willingly or not, I shall leave the worlds you know alone.' With that he stepped into the portal.

'Do we chase?' asked Darkdramon

'It's not like that we can.' Said Metal, who had just awaked.

'Hey! Good to see you being so alive!' Akio hugged Metal

The others just stood and watch, feeling relief and joy; there's nothing better than having a full team together.

'So it end like this?' Jun asked, she couldn't help suspecting Plutomon

'Nothing happened,' said Reiko, staring at the monitor of her digivice, 'There's no news about any attacks.'

'Can't we just take a rest for now?' suggested Katsumi, 'I mean, it's over for now, isn't it?'

'Yeah, we should have a beach party once we returned to Plaka,' suggested Reiko, 'you know, it's summer, and Jun's got a house on the beach. Shouldn't waste it.'

'Before that, we have to spend at least a week on the sea,' Akio pointed out, somehow ruined the mod of Reiko. 'If Ultimatebrakimon is still capable of giving us a ride.'

'I think I can.' Ultimatebrakimon replied

'Well then, what're we waiting for? Let's go!'

* * *

**Yeah~ really can't believe I can pull this off. It just feels so amazing to write something this long. Thanks for all your supports, it's my first long fiction ,and without you guys reading, I might have given up in the middle, so thanks again!**

**About book2, it would probably come out at late August or early September, so stay tuned~**

**And here is the Digi-destined's beach photo:**** gipakll. deviantart art/ Beach-530413284**


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